About this episode
I'd like to do something different today.... We are going to talk specifically about Prosperity Pillar #7 and I'm going to highlight a recent book I've read. I will also give you 7 specific strategies that you can use to generate happiness immediately in your week. But, along with this episode, I am including my personal notes that I created for this episode so you can see into how I put the episode together for you. I hope you enjoy... :) Choose Happiness….Prosperity Pillar #7 let me ask you a question…. Are you addicted to the future? have you ever thought about that before Yes, your vision of the future is Driving You…. Yes, your future life motivates you… But, does your vision of the future rob you of the happiness of the present? Is your future life continually pushing your happiness in life further and further out of reach? I have experienced this myself, so i know how it feels. I had a pretty interesting experience today driving home from my morning workout. I finished what i have to say is a pretty long and hard workout…i was trying to push myself further today. maybe it was to use the time to gain clarity or maybe it was just routine, but it was a good workout. afterward i got in my car and headed home. i turned on my normal affirmation audio as i usually do and…. i hit the button on the center console of my car so that was programmed to have my seat massager turn on and start a “fast vigorous massage”….i had set that setting in the computer of the car to give me a little relaxation on the way home then something hit me out of the blue… maybe it is because i knew this week would be about Choosing happiness or maybe i was just in the zone…. but i realized that i was driving down the road literally getting a massage in my leather seats and hadn’t even realized how crazy and cool that really was….i had been taking it for granted because i am usually too consumed with wh ti need to do to go tot eh “next level” or get to that future vision of what i wanted….. Now side note…i am not telling you this to impress you….on the contrary i am telling you this to impress upon you that AND LISTEN CLOSELY HERE….if you dont train yourself to enjoy what you have in the present you will be conditioned not to appreciate it when you get it in the future….i know from experience…. now of course i practice gratitude, but how you do anything is how you do everything. how many times during the day are you appreciating the “little things in life”….. the ability to actually wake up and be alive the gift of health or relationships or freedom of religion or occupation how bout appreciation of the ability to choose what job or corner or business you’d like to start how about the fact hat we live in an age of the internet that that you can learn, grow, accomplish or be “anything” do you enjoy and appreciate the people in your life, the relationships that support you… or are you too consumed with the future life you’d like to have? the better life…the life you are trying to create…the future vision that isn’t even real…. this reminds me of a quote from the dahlia lama…he said we ned to learn how to want what we have NOT to have what we want in order to get steady and stable Happiness. I’ve heard this quote before but his time it made me recognize the idea or thought that we need to LEARN how to want what we have…. so i believe that this week id like to focus our thoughts on yes PP#7 I choose happiness, but more importantly i wan to focus on the action of learning to be happy…because i believe that CHOOSING HAPPINESS IS SIMPLY LEARNING TO BE HAPPY AND GRATEFUL WITH YOUR ACTIONS “DAILY” NOT WORDS OR A ONE TIME DECISION… I mean i have always felt it is a little weird that people would say “I choose happiness” without backing it up with a process, system or explanation of how to do that…so this week lets talk specifically about how to ACTIVELY CHOOSE HAPPINESS THROUGH YORU ACTIONS AND DAILY ACTIVITIES… so, before i let you go i want to give you something practical to try and think about…. I recently started reading back through a book I’ve read before called The Happiness Equation…i highly recommend it. the subtitle is the actual equation….Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything…. we will discuss this a bit more over this week… but today i wanted to share with you one of the items i pulled from this book. ya see i have met and been around a lot of very successful people in my life and many of them are the definition of societies success, but they are not happy….i’ve been there…and still am at times in my life. the reason for this is that we (at times or often) are seeking happiness from EXTERNAL THINGS WHEN ONLY INTERNAL THINGS WILL BRING US HAPPINESS…sure the money, lifestyle, cars, clothes, shoes lol will bring us some shortchanged tterm gratification but not TRUE DEEP HAPPINESS….ONLY POSITIVE EMOTIONS WILL BRING THIS TO US… as my partner robert stuberg says….WE ARE ALL SEEKING EMOTIONS THAT THE EXTERNAL THINGS BRING US… so the KEY IS TO FIND WAYS TO CREATE THOSE EMOTIONS DAILY…AND WE ALL HAVE THE POWER TO DO THIS SO…BACK TO THE BOOK…SORRY I GET OFF ON TANGENTS SOMETIMES. LOL I’m going to read from page 15 of the book The Happiness Equation…then i’m going to give you 7 ways to be happy RIGHT NOW….so hang with me a little bit longer… READ CHAPTER 4, PAGE 15….. So, now let me give you 7 specific ways (from the book) that you can immediately impact your ATTITUDE NAD CREATE THE EMOTIONAL STATE THAT GENERATES HAPPINESS. some of these you may know but it important that you remember them, practice them and put them into your DAILY ROUTINE….YOUR DAILY RITUALS…. 3 WALKS -the american psychosomatic society published a study showing how Michael baby and a team of doctors found tha t3 30 min brisk walks or jogs even improve recovery from clinical depression…yeah depression… THE 20-MINUTE REPLAY -writing for twenty minutes about a positive experience dramatically improves happiness…why?…because you relive the experience….think about a positive experience…journal about it…relive it and Presto you create the emotions… RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS -carrying out 5 random acts of kindness per week dramatically improves happiness…it takes the focus off of you and places it on others and makes you feel better internally….probably they single most important thing you can do… A COMPLETE UNPLUG -teh only way to “fully engage in the present” is to disconnect from the insanity going on around you… -unplug your phone after dinner or before bed…take time off social media or the internet when you are doing something important… HIT FLOW -flow is the state you are in when you are engaging your Unique ability and challenging yourself. -we’ve all experienced it but you need to align your day so that you can block time for it more often. 2-MINUTE MEDITATIONS -meditation is a state where you can actually require your brain to raise your happiness levels. -so much on this topic another time, but science has PROVEN THE BENEFITS PRE AND POST MEDITATION.. FIVE GRATITUDES -learning to appreciate what you have brings happiness greater than having what you want. -the key is to practice this…train yourself…journal, notepad, mobile app, etc…i use gratitude app… Those are the 7 activities you can do weekly…. I ENCOURAGE YOU…NO I CHALLENGE YOU TO DO THESE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS…. -they will ground you -they will train you to focus on Happiness first -they will bring you positive benefits….without a doubt TRY IT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS THATS MY THOUGHT FOR TODAY. I HOEP IT HAS INSPIRED YOU TO DO MORE TO PRIORITIZE THE PRESENT MOMENT AND HAPPINESS IN YORU LIFE…. This week i will continue to bring you thoughts, strategies and tips to help you CHOOSE HAPPINESS IN YOUR LIFE..