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The Happiness Battle of the Sexes

Written on October 17, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Relationships

happy
What makes you happy?

We now know what makes our Australian friends happy thanks to a recent study by The Leading Edge, a marketing consulting firm, based in Sydney.

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It’s interesting to look at the similarities and differences between men and women.

Entertainment was the #1 choice for men and the #2 selection for women. Rest and recreation was the opposite – women selected it as #1 and men said it was #2.

One bigg difference was where they ranked sex. Women would rather enjoy a family meal, play with their children, or even play with their pets, than have sex according to the study.

But before you guys snicker too much – more men would rather surf the internet than make love! Read the study … we’re not making this up!

In fact, surfing the net ranked #3 with men, but barely made the list at #10 for women. This was the single biggest disparity in the top 10 list between men and women – followed by sex, which was #5 for men and #9 for women.

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marylynn
I wonder … if men spent less time surfing the net, would their women be more interested in sex?

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george Well, maybe the women should pay less attention to their pet and more attention to their man!

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Both sexes agreed on the joy of spending quality time with their partner. It ranked #4 on both lists. Ah … isn’t that sweet?

Only thirty percent of the women ranked shopping as the single activity that made them the happiest, which was lower than the researchers expected. Of course, men ranked shopping far down on their list, living up to expectations.

The conclusion from this research, as you look at the full list of responses by men and women, is that happiness is not about acquiring material goods or even accomplishments. It comes from good relationships and great experiences.

Your own survey

As we carve out our time for play, it’s important to set aside time for just you, for just your spouse, and for your immediate family. Of course, you’ll also plan to spend time with friends and your extended family from time to time.

As we talked about this survey in Australia, we realized that it would be good to conduct our own survey of our own loved ones. Ask your spouse what makes him or her happy. Ask your kids what they would think would be fun.

Then compare notes and develop an activity plan to make sure that everyone in your family is getting their share of chosen activities.

The best recipe for bigg fun is creating great experiences with the ones you love.

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Related posts

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Little Adults, Bigg Kids: What We’re All Missing Out On

Reach Out and Touch Someone

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Little Adults, Bigg Kids: What We’re All Missing Out On

Written on October 10, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Balance

playground We recently read a great post by Dr. Robyn Silvermen about treating kids like little adults. She offers a lot of great links to research and other articles about this increasing trend.

Hear George & Mary-Lynn talk about today's post on The Bigg Success Show! Click the purple player: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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The calendars of kids today are as busy as ours. Between school and all their extracurricular activities, they’re too busy to really play.

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george I saw an interview with a little girl awhile back. She was brilliant, doing well in school and excelling at everything she did. Her one wish was that she could just have some time to play.

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Isn’t that sad?

Play pays

Don’t get us wrong – extracurricular activities are great, but it’s good to also have time to engage in activities that don’t have a goal with performance stress attached.

It’s good for kids to just play. It’s good for them physically, socially, and mentally. Play helps them develop their imagination and creativity as well as socially – all important skills in the years ahead.

Turning back the clock

Dr. Robyn cites a growing trend of kids having fitness club memberships. How many of us just love going to the gym? Do you remember playing … just good old fashioned play? It was fun. Something you couldn’t wait to do. You got some great exercise, but you didn’t watch the clock like you do when you’re working out at the club.

Speaking of clocks, the sad part is that we seem to be turning back the clock. Dr. Robyn’s article includes a quote that says kids are about two years behind in their development compared to sixty years ago. It seems we’re not evolving; we’re going backwards.

We need to do a 180

So let’s let the kids be kids. In fact, let’s take it a step further. Let’s do a 180 degree turn – instead of trying to turn kids into little adults, let’s become bigg kids.

Not in an immature way … just for fun and all the benefits that come with it.

We need to be more child-like. Do you remember being fascinated by bugs? Of course, we’re not talking about bugs inside the house. But isn’t it fascinating to just watch a praying mantis? How relaxing is it to see butterflies fluttering around?

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marylynn That’s one of the reasons I love going for walks. I just love seeing all the cool plants. There’s a lake close to our house so I can watch the fish. It sure beats going to the fitness center and watching TV!

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We get so busy working that we don’t have a second to spare. Sometimes we even block people out so we can get all of our work done. That’s when play time is especially important. Play time is social time. You can relax and talk with people.

And you learn … things that you might not learn any other way. Because other people have different interests. By playing – socializing – you expand our interests. That helps you look at old problems in new ways. You find solutions that you may not find if you don’t get out of your routine.

Play expands our imaginations. Our imagination leads us to be more creative, more innovative. Which is how we find those bigg ideas that lead to bigg success!

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