Secret to happiness

The secret to happiness

Keegan Luiters

Like many, the last few weeks has been a series of responses (or reactions) as the world continues to change at hyperspeed in front of our eyes. Two or three short weeks ago (I can't even remember the exact dates!), our apartment was a place that three people ate breakfast, slept and hung out in the evenings and weekends. Now, all of our outside worlds are here as well. I'm trying to run a business, my wife is managing to run a project across two continents and my daughter is continuing her education as best as we can manage.

On Monday, I just about broke. There were tears from all three residents and I didn't know how to get through Tuesday, let alone up to six months of this. Since then, we have had 2.5 good days (which feels like a huge win!) and here is the reason.

The secret to happiness is low expectations

Our happiness or disappointment is basically a function of the relationship between expectations and reality. When our expectations exceed the reality that we experience, then we are disappointed. The inverse occurs when reality exceeds our expectations and we experience happiness. Here is a fancy graph that explains it.

In real terms for me at the moment, the easiest lever to pull here is not my reality. It's my expectations.

I was broken on Monday because I hadn't adjusted my expectations to adequately respond to reality. I had made no acknowledgement that my capacity was stretched across my roles of father, husband, son, friend and business owner in the context of unprecedented health, social and economic upheaval. Since then, I have made a few adjustments to my expectations. For our family right now, I need to adjust the times (and only a little bit of the total time) that I

How might you be able to redefine success this week? Photo by Nicolas I. on Unsplash

dedicate to my business. As I reflected, I realised that my frustration and angst arose from being attached to expectations that I didn't even realise that I had.

I had been unrealistic by expecting to be able to work 'normal' hours, assist my daughter with her school, maintain physical and mental health. Of all of these, my work was the one that was able to flex most. It has meant that I get up early (before the sun!) get my big tasks for the day done and any other work is a bonus. It means that I don't get everything that I really want done, but it's not how I'm defining success this week. I then get to switch my attention more fully to my daughter and it has been great - we're doing PE with Joe, developing our netball skills and just as importantly her handball skills.

Every time that I share this concept as a part of a presentation or workshop, people take a while to realise that I am serious. Don't get me wrong, low expectations are not exactly the secret to incredible work but a deliberate and strategic adjustment can be surprisingly useful. I'll share more another time about the combination of high aspirations and low expectations that helps with performance.

I'm willing to bet that you and/or your team members are facing far more challenges than I am at my place. More kids to school, younger kids, partners facing a job loss or uncertainty, health concerns for themselves, family or neighbours. The result of my lowered expectations that were discussed and communicated with others has led to a much happier household. Even more than that, the quality of my work output has increased (who knew that it's hard to be useful to others when you're stressed!?) and it will set me up

for longer term success. This won't be forever, it's a temporary triage measure.

Realistically lowering your expectations is a form of self-kindness that you might need right now. Negotiate and communicate it with others as you need to. Realistically adjusting the expectations of your team at this point in time could be one of the most astute decisions that you make.

Some questions for you to consider this week:

1. How might you be able to redefine success for yourself this week?

2. H ow might you be able to redefine success for your teams this week?

Stay safe and be kind (starting with yourself). Go well.

About the Author

Hamish Clark

Keegan has worked in Australia and NZ across organisations ranging from his own small business, government agencies, education and large corporate organisations. His background is diverse and includes cricket as a player and coach in Australia and the UK. He also "enjoys" marathon running. He brings a passion and deep undrstanding for teams, leadership, learning and performance to the programs that he runs.

He is passionate about lifting the performance of the individuals, teams and organisations that he works with. A Masters degree in Business Coaching ensures that his programs are designed to deliver sustained performance outcomes applying evidence based techniques and the latest information.

He has worked with organisations including Westpac, Suncorp, Sydney Metro Delivery Office, Rawson Homes, Australian Super, Green Building Council of Australia, Australian Film Television and Radio School, Delta Group, Stan, Protecsure, Asteron Life and AFL.

Full Steam Ahead Efficient Steam Generation

In the last edition of this journal we looked at why steam has, and continues to be, so widely used as the thermal energy medium of many institutions and most healthcare facilities. In this article we will look at why embracing steam as the primary, or only, thermal energy medium makes good sense, and how to optimise the steam generation for maximum efficiency.

Steam can be used for all the thermal energy needs of an institution or healthcare facility and includes the following processes:

Building heating (air handling unis) Domestic hot water CSSD (sterilisers, washers and RO water loop heating) Laundry (washing, drying, ironing) Kitchen Humidification Embracing steam as the energy medium for all the thermal processes eliminates the need for multiple systems and has many advantages…

E mbracing steam as the energy medium for all the thermal processes eliminates the need for multiple systems and has many advantages:

Redundancy only required for one system (less equipment/boilers and less space) Easier to implement duel fuel to ensure continuity of supply Typically this will provide a reasonable base load that allows more steady and efficient operation of boilers Boilers sized to cater for varying load conditions (usually seasonal) to enable a combination of boilers to be run for maximum ef ficiency Steam boilers store energy in the pressurised water, which helps them to react to peak loads, and further, a steam accumulator can be used to even out peak demands on the boiler to help boiler efficiency Fewer systems (boilers) means more capital is available to be used to ensure boilers have high efficiency (boiler design, burner selection and control, stack energy recovery etc.) Easier to measure and monitor a single system and to integrate energy recovery and ef ficiency measures as all the thermal processes use the same system and are more likely to be in balance Critical mass to allow knowledge and skills to be built on one system, or to engage a specialist contractor to help maintain the system

E fficient steam generation will be at the heart of the modern maximum efficiency with modern modulating burners and control. The boilers should be sized to suit the likely load conditions, which may mean different size boilers that can be run in combination to suit the load conditions (avoiding load conditions where the boiler may not run at maximum efficiency, such as very low or very high loads).

Blowdown is often considered an area of loss with a steam boiler, but it is possible to minimise blowdown and, or, recover energy from blowdown. Some aspects to consider are:

Maximise condensate return – it not only has a high heat energy content, but also has very low Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), so reduces boiler blowdown Pre-treat make-up water (softener and perhaps Reverse Osmosis) to reduce feedwater TDS and allow higher cycling Reduce Oxygen by heating the feedtank and thus use less chemical treatment (chemicals increase TDS) Use automatic TDS control to maintain the optimum TDS level in the boiler Recover energy from TDS blowdown to heat the feedtank and preheat make-up water

The use of a combined cycle allows greater use of the high energy potential of the fuel source. Co-generation will produce electrical power and heat (steam), while Trigeneration will provide electrical power, heat (steam) and cooling (chilled water via an absorption chiller). The use of combined cycle systems, that can produce steam, may be a good fit with the overall energy requirements of a facility.

Measure, monitor and optimise. If there is no visibility of what is happening, then how well the system is working, and if it can be better, are hard to determine. Installing meters to measure boiler and system flows provides the raw data, however this by itself will not normally provide an effective outcome. Monitoring and analysis of this data is required to benchmark the system and identify potential improvements to efficiency and performance, and to maintain these gains ongoing.

Recovering energy from the flue gas can greatly increase the overall steam boiler efficiency. The use of an economiser to pre-heat feedwater going to the boiler is the traditional method of energy recovery from the flue. However, it may also be possible to recover energy to other processes, for example a LTHW system. And what if this could cool the flue gas to a level that condenses the water vapour, and allows the steam boiler to approach an efficiency on par with a condensing hot water boiler? This concept will be looked at in a future edition of this journal steam system. This will require boilers designed to provide

along with more on the efficient use of steam.