International Day of Happiness is on March 20th and Louise Hunt Skelley PLY is reflecting on what truly makes her happy

March 20th is the International Day of Happiness and Louise Hunt Skelley PLY is reflecting on what brings her happiness at work and at home.

Louise is a former Paralympic tennis player who travelled competing and who was ranked top ten in the world at the height of her career. Today she’s a television commentator on sports, a motivational speaker and an advocate and activist around disability rights.

Happiness is everything to me and since retiring from elite sport, I have honestly realised just how important it is to prioritise my happiness over everything else, even if that means sacrificing things in other areas of my life. For example, going self-employed I knew initially for a while that I may be taking a pay cut until I get the ball properly rolling, but I also knew that this was my dream and ambition, something that would be bring me joy, confidence and make me feel proud, and that was more important than the extra pennies in the short term.

Day to day, it’s the smallest things bring me happiness. The look on my dog’s face when he realises that we’re going for a walk and then the fun that follows when I have to chase him around the house to get him to let me put his lead on. Lazy Sundays are my true happy place. Just me, my husband, Chris, and our dog spending a whole day unanswerable to anyone, only on our own time spending most of the day watching our favourite TV series. That’s not to say the bigger things don’t matter to me. I need to have exciting things to look forward to, like a holiday, which means I have to work extra hard to get there and that is what makes it feel so much more satisfying - knowing that I’ve earnt it. Achieving the goals I set my sights on brings me a lot of happiness but it’s the little moments of joy along the way which make it truly worthwhile. 

Sometimes it just feels great to reflect on what truly makes you happy at home and at work.

For more information on Louise head to her website at www.louisehunt.co.uk