Science of Happiness: Journey to Happiness

Hi everyone, I’m Kim Strobel. I am the owner of Strobel Education, but I’m a former fourth grade teacher and then after I taught fourth grade I became a curriculum director which was phenomenal. I got to really look and see what teaching looks like at all grade levels.

In 2016 I launched my own business and we provide a lot of professional development for schools, but I have stepped into the motivational speaking round because I am insanely passionate about happiness and well-being and what that can look like for people both in their careers and out of their careers. Now sometimes when I get called to do a speaking event and have 6,000 people in the crowd I hesitate a little bit when I’m introduced as a happiness coach because I think it’s really easy to think that I’m someone who just has everything figured out.

I always say I am not sunshine, sprinkles, and butterflies. I’ve actually walked a very difficult path to becoming a motivational speaker. I am someone who has suffered greatly with a great deal of things in my life, but one specific thing is an anxiety disorder. I had a debilitating anxiety disorder. I think it started as a child but it really came to fruition when I was in high school and then from the ages of 16 to about age 23. My life went from this big [gestures with hands] to about this big [small gesture with fingers like a pinch] and I struggled to do the simplest of things. I struggled to drive my car five minutes to work or to walk in a Walmart or a Target. I struggled to be left alone by myself at home. As a young adult, struggled to walk to my mailbox. But I do believe that many times we get to decide what we’re going to do with the pain of our life, and for me I decided to turn it into the purpose of my life. 

So I am deeply deeply invested in helping others really learn how to get out of the darkness of their life and into the light of their life. For me that looks like many times how do we really prioritize our happiness and well-being. How do we bring it to the forefront of our life because: (1) we know that we deserve that, and (2) that’s exactly how we get results in our life. So when I talk about the Science of Happiness what I really mean is understanding that we can overcome really hard things in our life. Those things might stay with us, but that we can move forward even though we may have the heaviness or the grief of things that have happened to us.

So what I really like to do is be able to acknowledge the hard, because I don’t think we can get to the good unless we acknowledge the hard first. Also know that we have the ability to step into our power to show up as better teachers, better Educators, better moms, better dads, better humans, but mostly better for ourselves. Because when we are better for ourselves first, that is when we are better for everyone else.

I just want you to know I’m over here rooting for you. I will be talking in some other videos about The Science of Happiness and how we can really move the needle in our schools, in our businesses, and in our organizations, when we learn how to prioritize employee well-being.