happiness - life coaching - lifestyle design
Are you happy in your life or are you telling yourself you’re happy?
A lot of us believe we’re happy based on someone’s definition of happiness. Advertising, society, our family and friends all have a distinct interest in telling us what will make us happy and fulfill us.
There are three ways to really achieve happiness in your life:
Something to do.
Something to hope for.
Something to love.
How many of these do you currently have in your life and are trading consumerism to replace one of these key components of happiness.
Creating purpose and happiness through having something to do.
First up is something to do. As we master our carers we slowly begin to get “bored” with the work. It’s no longer challenging anymore, it’s just something to pass the time and we spend our most creative energies at work finding ways to avoid working as many hours as possible.
If you find yourself with a stalled career by your lack of interest to push your career forward it’s time to start investing in a hobby, thinking and researching a side business you can start, volunteer with an organization to spend time with.
Consciously choose where to allocate your resources to provide a deep feeling of happiness. Reflect on how finding a new purpose will provide you with a new source of motivation you will achieve by pursuing a new path in life.
Creating more happiness by having something to hope for.
What are you hoping your life will be about? Are you done chasing the dream of the corner office and the big paycheck? Does that vision of success even align with your dreams anymore?
We all come to the realization under our own steam that our life is about different purposes at different time. As we switch our minds from being driven about our career, we start to hope for a different future. One that is different than those of our family, friends and peers.
Internally, we know the dream of truly retiring and sitting on the porch don’t excite us. Instead, we want to redefine our mission in life to drive us, fuel u up mentally, physically and emotionally.
This is my new definition of “Retirement” and what my mission is about. What do you constantly think about, talk about, read about. Deep down what consumes you to take action?
If you listen closely, that’s your internal voice telling you which way to start pointing your compass and moving.
If you listen closely enough, you’ll see the vision of a future that brings alive a sense of hopes and drive. It’s now time to start designing the plan to move you in that direction.
Creating even more happiness by having something to love.
Other than our family and close friends, love is a fuzzy term. I believe it’s an unquenchable thirst to support and nurture something, other than a person, it’s a cause, a movement. A raging inferno within you which no matter how much you douse it never relents.
The more you refine and define a new purpose, the larger it becomes in your life, the more it consumes you, the more uncomfortable it becomes to stay rooted in one place anymore.
The key to the second half transformation in your life is to find a fire so intense that it propels you into action.
Keep a journal (digital or analog) handy to capture your thoughts, ideas and inspirations. It will appear at the most inopportune times. Whether you’re in the shower, on your commute, in a meeting, somewhere you’re not expecting it, it will appear. Be ready to capture it like lightning bugs on a hot summer night.
Warning, once you’ve rung the bell, it can’t be un-rung. You’ll slowly become so dissatisfied that you’re not chasing the new dream and passion, your new “true love” you can work within.
As you grow and accept moving onto a new path in life, it’s hard to stay rooted and focused on what has to be done right now, doing just enough to keep the wheels on the bus while you move forward in a totally new direction.
It’s critical to start defining, deciding and taking decisive action. But, you must have a transition plan in place. Too many people try to dump everything in their lives and switch to a new path only to flame out because they haven’t put a support system in place.
Find the three key pieces to propel and support you moving forward. Something to do, to hope for and to love.
This is an important cross roads in your life right now and you have the stability and support from the current phase of your life that you can leverage into a new phase where you Ignite Your Awakening.