Choose Happy...

Did you know…

There is an entire section in the bookstores for motivation.  Yes.  Motivation.

I haven’t been to a library in quite a while so I haven’t checked but I’m sure it’s the same there as well.

We have gone from self-help to motivation. People are making money on us needing a good old kick in the ass to do something.  Anything.  Yyou choose and there is a book for it – money, love, writing, travelling, quitting your job.

We are so far removed from our true goals, our biggest dreams that we need others to share their stories instead.  To live vicariously through them instead of taking the plunge ourselves and diving in head first. 

We are scared. 

And when we do sit down to write our goals – when a course or job requires us to – because lets be honest  - how many people stop long enough in their day to day lives to listen to their hearts and just dream – and if you have, congratulations, you are much farther along than most people ever get.  So when we do sit down our goals often revolve around money, career progressions, success, fame and the biggest of all and hardest to define… HAPPINESS.

  To be happy.

Stop for a second and let that sink in.

We are looking to others to inspire us to be happy. 

Incredible.

Unlike money and career progressions which in many ways rely on the input of others to achieve happiness is at our fingertips.  In our hearts.  We can CHOOSE to be HAPPY right now by reframing our perspective, changing our stories.

Yet happiness eludes us more than the others.

Why is that?

I’ve had success, career progressions and have been paid more than most people can ever actually dream of and yet my happiness came from none of that.  In fact my unhappiness in many ways was a result of living the 9-5, struggling to find my place that was dictated solely by the market conditions, my bosses perspective, my age.

It was when I stopped using the outward signs of success to define who I was that I found happiness.  When I was silent and still and looked within myself that the joy came forth. 

Every day for a year I wrote down all that I was grateful for before I went to sleep each night. Some days when very little happened there were still small things that upon reflection once again brought a smile to my face – the warm sun shining, the scent of a flower on the breeze, having a nap or simply a text from a dear friend.  It became easy to see the love all around me and that was happiness.

It radiated fro within me, a choice I made to be happy and so it was, there was no outward source filling me with joy, my gratefulness was keeping my happiness fires burning, grateful for the air we breathe and the world around us on any given day.

Happiness is a choice.  Choose happy and the world will open up in wonder.

What do you choose?