Effectiveness in PR/communications practice usually involves thinking about evaluation and measurement metrics. But what about the human aspects of how we as individuals - and collectively - can improve our professional practice? This PRConversations conversational post examines the importance of happiness as a performance improvement trigger. I’ve discussed this interesting proposition by email with David Sawyer, a successful UK PR consultant, who starts with the story behind his new book, RESET: an unconventional early retirement plan for midlife (salaried) careerists who want to be happy. David Sawyer Almost five years ago now (was it that long?) I struck out on my own and set up a one-man band PR consultancy, Zude PR. Before that, I'd won oodles of awards, including one from the United Nations, and ended up heading a big city office of a global PR firm for five years. I had a great job, great colleagues, lovely family, lots of money, but no time, and felt that the dreams I'd had as a kid were floating away on a sea of twice-a-day lattes, content wheels and kids' plastic toys. One day I looked around and decided there must be more to life than this. I felt a bit trapped, without any sort of plan, and decided to do something about it. If you read as many self-improvement books as I do, you could say I've been on a journey”. This 2,000-day odyssey has led to a perhaps different perspective that can help public relations professionals in the same boat I was to be a little bit happier in their lives, and ergo, a little bit better at their jobs. So, to kick off with, I have three contentions. Life is about the pursuit of happiness. And that this comes through finding meaning and purpose. That's contention one. Contention two is that the vast majority (87 per cent) of people globally either hate their jobs or are disengaged at work. This is not a good thing. Given public relations is consistently cited as one of the world's top 10 most stressful professions, I