G’Day!

I’m Brendan, an Aussie passionate about barbeques, beers, beaches and cricket! But that’s not all, I’m even more passionate about creating a life of happiness, success and fulfillment, pursuing my dreams while balancing life and helping others do the same. I literally had an awakening in my sleep at 3:16 in the morning and decided that The Start of Happiness had to be established.

Happiness in life is success in life.

If you can build a life around your passions and make a living doing so, why not? The Start of Happiness is about helping you build your own lifestyle in which you are absolutely passionate, excited and happy to do what you love every day.

The Start of Happiness exists to provide you the strategies and tools to be able to do the things you love, more often. It is about understanding yourself, understanding your passions, defining your goals and staying motivated to enable you to reach your full potential.

Why happiness?

1. Happiness leads to positive thinking and clarity of mind.
2. Positive thinking and clarity of mind lead to higher performance.
3. Higher performance leads to greater success in life.
4. Greater success in life leads to bigger rewards.
5. Bigger rewards lead to enhanced and sustained happiness.

The Start of Happiness is not just about sustaining a ‘positive feeling’… it is about CHANGING YOUR LIFE, reaching peak performance, achieving huge success, pursuing your passion and living a more fulfilling life.

 The above diagram is our Happiness Model, which you can read more about here.

Now is the time to Start the Happiness!

First things first, sign-up below and get access to the Happiness Toolkit, your starters guide for living an absolutely amazingly happy and fulfilling life.

Why is The Start of Happiness for you?

The Start of Happiness is a place for community – where anyone from anywhere in the World can share what they have learned about happiness and success and how they apply this to their everyday life.

The Start of Happiness is a place for action – where you will be challenged regularly to start the happiness and achieve success not only in your own life, but in the lives of those around you.

The Start of Happiness is a place for learning – where you will be able to find resources, guides and exercises to help you learn how to create a more satisifying, fulfilling and ultimately happy and successful life.

The Start of Happiness is a place of fun! Simple as that!

Simply put, The Start of Happiness is about pursuing excellence in life.

I received an email from a reader, Mark Trezona, over in London who found out about the Start of Happiness before it was even launched. His email was so encouraging and reinforced that this is something that the World is going to want to be a part of. Mark summed up what he thought the Start of Happiness will be about and he absolutely nailed it on the head! Here’s a snippet of what Mark sent to me:

Love that you are called The Start of Happiness - just like ‘learning’, happiness is something to be always aspiring and working towards.

Love that you are talking about ‘tools’ – things, by definition, that we use to make something or fix something with.

Love that you are talking about ‘changing the world one smile at a time‘ – incremental revolution fuelled by inclusion, involvement and winning hearts and minds (rather than provocation and outrage).

The Start of Happiness is about you. This is not my site, this is your site, and I would love for you to become part of this by firstly joining the fun, and secondly becoming a regular contributor either through sharing your thoughts in the comments or sharing your story or learnings as a post.  

A bit about me

I am a lucky one. I was born in the leafy suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Being the youngest of three sons, it was always a challenge losing convincingly to my brothers while playing backyard cricket. The competitive nature in me was born and I’ve had to search and find ways of becoming successful in life. Now, I’m not a millionaire and I don’t have every qualifcation under the sun, however I have come to understand as well as develop strategies and tools that are effective for living more successful, fulfilled and happier each and every day.

Luckily for me, I was born healthy and wired with a positive mindset. I can’t help but smile. Sometimes I don’t even know I’m smiling or I find it extremely difficulty to stop. I have a burning desire. A desire for a happy, successful and fulfilling life. Don’t we all?

My father gave me a Christmas present when I was about 10 years old. It was a personal development book that spoke of how we are all pilots, flying through the adventure that is our lives. As the pilot, we can steer the plane and fly in any direction we want. Although I was always positive and happy as a child, this sparked a passion for self-discovery, self-development and continual learning and growth which I have maintained throughout my life.

As all of us have had, I have been through my ups and downs and have my own ‘regrets’ (in inverted commas as I don’t truly see them as regrets but as some of the most pivotal learning experiences of my life). I believe in simplicity when it comes to happiness, enjoying healthy relationships with those around you, experiencing gratitude and counting your blessings. I also believe in the power of attitude and mindset and the benefits of success this can bring.

In the pursuit of happiness and success, I’ve travelled the world, I’ve ran my own businesses, I’ve had about 20 different jobs and I’m always up for some super adventures and epic challenges.

I have now built a career around my passion of leadership development, performance improvement and wellbeing and have been earning well into 6 figures each year doing this since I turned 25.

The Start of Happiness is the evolution of my passion in wanting to reach out to as many people as possible to help you live a more successful, fulfilling and ultimately happy life.

I’ve found that most online resources do indeed provide practical tips, however none of them go into the nuts and bolts of the real strategies and tools for living more effectively each day. The purpose of The Start of Happiness is to become the most trustworthy, genuine and honest resource on the internet for providing real life strategies and tools for living more successfully, happy and fulfilled. 

That’s a little teaser about my beliefs and my background, however you’re probably more interested in what I actually do!

As a full-time job, I work for a FTSE Top 10 Company as the  Talent Manager for Australasia including Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands. Basically, I am responsible for all leadership and development, coaching and mentoring, performance management and employee wellbeing strategies, amongst other areas less related to this site such as recruitment, succession planning, change management, culture initiatives, employer branding and retention strategies.  

The great thing is, I get to live my passion everyday by helping others and just having fun with life. I’m taking it a step further, as I can’t touch 99.99% of this world physically, I’m taking to the internet to spread the word. This is your opportunity to change your thoughts, think positive,  live a super-happy life  and ultimately take the lead in what you do every day. 

Some Things You May Not Know About Me

• In September, 2012 I established The Start of Happiness with the vision of becoming the most trustworthy, genuine and honest resource on the internet for providing real life strategies and tools for living more effectively each day. 
• In June 2011 I organised an event raising over $45,ooo AUD for charity
• In April 2011, I established Australia’s Number 1 social group – the Sydney Activity & Adventure Group (or SAAG being a really ridiculous acronym!). We were the fastest growing Meetup in all of Australia and were the only group in the country to ever break 1,000 members in it’s first year. The group continues to grow stronger each day.
• In 2004, I founded my first business – ‘Ausupplies’ at the start of the eBay boom. Ausupplies was an online retail business selling mobile phones, digital cameras and electronics (now ceased).
• Australian representative in Trans-Tasman Athletics  bringing home two gold medals and a silver
• Still hold the club record for the fastest 400m (Under 11) and the State record for the 4x200m relay (Under 9) . Yeh!! That’s nearly 20 years of record holding!
• Have worked across a number of industries including Finance, Manufacturing, Government, Sales, Retail, Entertainment, Education and Health & Wellbeing
• I was previously a Master of Ceremonies and DJ for various corporate functions, cruises, birthdays and weddings
• I play guitar and trombone
• I did Scouts and led my Patrol to achieve Gold at the Australian Scout Jamboree
• Had to be rescued from a stranger while drowning at the age of 2 (perspective changer!)
• Had to be rescued by my brother after being struck by a moving train at the age of 7 (life changer!)
• In 2010 and 2011 I was in the top 1% of runners in the worlds largest fun run – the City to Surf
• Studied abroad in the United States at the University of Tennessee
• Have travelled the world including North America, UK, Western Europe, Asia, South-East Asia and Oceania

Not Sure Where to Start?

Not sure where to start? Make sure you head to our Start Here page to go straight to the recommended material to kick start the change in your life. 

Let’s Connect!

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