Latina Leadership Lessons: Why Are Powerful Latinas Happy?

Personal power, done right, is intertwined with personal happiness…done right. In other words, if power is benevolent, and if happiness is sought with the right frame of mind, the two will join hands and march forward together, making for a powerfully happy life, or a happily powerful one.

It’s simplistic. But the older I get, the more I realize that being happy is simpler than we think, and being happy increases our power. The “Powerful Latinas” featured in this website come from vastly divergent fields: arts, entertainment, business, government, military, health, etc. Not knowing them personally, I’m going to stick my neck out and fathom a guess about each one of them: They are happy in their lives.

The Connection Between Power and Happiness

Personal power, as I use it, refers to our individual ability to make a difference in the lives of others. All the Powerful Latinas highlighted in prior blogs have that ability and use it.

Happiness, as used here, refers to how we live our lives. It’s a process, not an emotion. We’ve all seen bumper stickers that say, “Happiness is the journey, not the destination.” Or, “You can’t find happiness; you create it.” It’s the same message. On my bulletin board by my desk, I pinned this little revelation a friend emailed me recently. Unfortunately, neither she nor I know the source of the statement, but here it is:

“If you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work, and doing the best you can, happiness will find you.”

It speaks straight to my heart!

Powerful Latinas have their focus in the right places: their family, their amigas and amigos, the needs of other people (neighbors, co-workers, supervisors, clients, patients, customers, fellow soldiers), their work, and—most tellingly of all—doing the best job they can do. This focus is what elicited their quality work, what earned them the recognition and prestige they have. This focus is what gave them their personal power and the ability to make a difference in the lives of others around them.

And, according to my bulletin board, this focus is bringing them happiness along the way.

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Note from Aurelia: I love Thelma’s premise that Happiness is a process, not an “end game” – think about what that means for your life…