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Are You Happy? You Can Learn to Live a Happy Life
It’s interesting to listen to people speak these days. Most topics include:
- the wet summer we’ve had
- the recession and “ain’t it awful”
- unemployment
- child obesity
- and may other related items
What about you? What’s on your mind? Are you happy?
Research shows that there are 4 major barriers to living a happy life: Habits, Attitudes, Beliefs and Expectations. In my work as a coach over the past 20 years, I have added 3 additional barriers: Ego, Emotion and Control.
The good news is that you can get past these barriers and begin living a happier life today! Here are 5 ways to get started.
# 1: Know what you want!
Many of us go through life, one day at a time, without a clue as to what we want for our future. Most days, it’s challenging to decide what we want for supper. The key to creating a happy life is to identify what you want and to be very specific about it. One of the tools I recommend, to help people with this exercise, is the Life Balance Wheel. Just Google it and you will find all kinds of examples that you could use.
# 2: Write it down.
Once you have identified some of the things you want in life (e.g., more money in the bank, a vacation on the beach, family dinners together once a week, experiment with different recipes, a change in careers, etc.), it’s effective to write it down – either in goal statements or, as a fun family activity, create a Vision Board.
# 3: Control Your Self-Talk to be Positive and Uplifting!
Self-talk is that inner dialogue that goes on all day long. We have up to 60,000 thoughts in a day. Do you tend to be negative or positive in your thinking? It takes a lot of energy to reach our goals and negative thoughts can quickly deplete that energy.
Here’s a simple exercise you can do to turn negative self-talk into positive self-talk. Take an elastic band, put it on your wrist and, for a 24-hour period, eliminate all the negativity, sarcasm, devaluing comments, etc. that you make to yourself or to others. Any time you find your self-talk turning negative, give that elastic band a little snap. It’s a powerful technique for becoming aware of your inner voice.
# 4: Eliminate all Toxic People from Your Life.
Some people just aren’t good for you. To live a happy life, you must surround yourself with positive, uplifting and helpful people. Are you around people who moan and groan and complain about life all the time? Are you one of them? You need to change that! Being around happy people is contagious. Let’s start an epidemic!
# 5: If You Aren’t Happy with Who You Are, and What You Do – Then, Change it!
You only have one life. This is not a dress rehearsal. If you aren’t happy, it is your responsibility to make changes. How much fun are you to live with these days? Make some changes today to create the kind of happy life you want and that you deserve. Your happiness is your responsibility. Take charge!
My philosophy in life is “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!” So, don’t worry – be happy!
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Pat Mussieux is founder of the company “Steps2Happiness” and creator of the “Steps2Happiness Home Study System.” As a speaker, coach, author and radio personality, Pat specializes in helping female baby-boomers add more happiness into their daily lives by way of teaching mindset and goal-setting techniques. Visit her website: www.steps2happiness.com to get your free copy of the CD: “The 10 Steps2Happines.”
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