Wait for happiness to arrive and you’ll likely be waiting for a while.
Chase happiness and you’ll likely end up running way more than you’d like to.
Make happiness…? Now, maybe that’s something we can do.
Tune in to this LIVE group audio discussion as my Co-Host, Samantha, and I dive in!
(Can’t see the audio link? Click here to view it in your browser.)
They are not the same thing.
Both have to do with acceptance, but in completely different ways.
Being content is accepting that what’s here is enough *and* taking a step forward along the hiking trail towards growth.
Being complacent is accepting that what’s here is enough *and* avoiding the hiking trail altogether to sit on the couch and watch TV.
It’s completely possible to be content *and* travel forward on a journey. Not because what’s here isn’t enough—but, because traveling forward on a journey is precisely how growth happens.
When you let content turn into complacency, you start to regress. Your awareness fades. Your comfort zone collapses in around you and suffocates your brain.
And eventually, because of a lack of growth, what’s “enough” will start to turn gray, dull, lackluster, unappealing, and unfulfilling.
And what will be left is not a lack of “enough,” but a lack of awareness that allows you to truly appreciate all that you have.
It’s precisely the challenge associated with growth that gives you the contrast needed to appreciate the enough.
And don’t take my word for it.
Take yourself through a really hard workout—one that’s harder than normal. Make it so that you’re truly exhausted by the end of it. And then take a sip of water.
It’s the same sip of water you always take—but, I guarantee, the sip after that killer workout will taste a helluva lot better than the other.
P.s. Today, I hosted a LIVE talk on Creating (not waiting for) Happiness and it was amazing. Listen to the playback here (~2 hours long & worth every minute).
I think happiness is a recipe.
One that is unique to each individual person.
Wait for the ingredients to cook themselves and you’ll be waiting an awful long-time.
Rush the cooking process and you’ll burn, contort, abuse, and otherwise mess up the meal.
There’s an art to cooking just like there’s an art to happiness.
And just like a chef would bring a level of presence and care to the kitchen when prepping meals, you too need to bring that same kind of energy to the preparation of your happiness in life.
One of my personal favorite recipes for happiness is:
With 3.5 cups of space left (in the day) to work with.
Mixed altogether and served with some sprinkles of spontaneity on top.
And it’s a formula that I loosely follow each day.
What you have to figure out for yourself is, what does your recipe consist of?
And are you preparing your batch of happiness fresh every day? Or are you trying to eat from stale batches of happiness that was prepared long ago?
Are you waiting for the ingredients to combine themselves? Are you rushing as you prepare your meals? Or are you taking your time and approaching your craft like a chef would?
Of all the recipes you have memorized in your life, this might be one of the most important to not only memorize—but to internalize.
Gratitude is usually about appreciating all that we have.
What if, to take gratitude further, we appreciated all that we didn’t have, too?
Things like:
This exercise will 100x your gratitude list at least.
Thinking love is not the same as expressing love.
Thinking kindness is not the same as expressing kindness.
Thinking gratitude is not the same as expressing gratitude.
When you move your most beautiful thoughts into reality, the byproduct is a more beautiful reality.
Beautiful thoughts left unexpressed are quickly buried beneath the forever churning soils of the mind and the result is a forgotten about seed and unchanged reality.
Help flower our shared reality by intentionally nurturing, harvesting, and sharing all of what’s beautiful inside of you. However and whenever you can. Our reality needs it.
Your current reality doesn’t have to be your forever reality.
Or you can not do any of those things and continue to live your current reality on repeat.
The question you should reflect on carefully is: if I copied and pasted the general trends in all areas of my life (i.e. health, wealth, relationships) from the past year into this next upcoming year, would the results leave me feeling disappointed or thrilled?
Anything short of thrilled should raise an eyebrow in your mind.
If you want to change your reality then you’re going to have to change something in your reality. And the best way to do that is quickly—before your comfort zone can even process what’s happening. Here’s the plan: take an inertia-breaking action (the hardest part) and then keep the momentum going forward for as long as you can possibly manage it.
Inertia is the better-reality-killer.
Quick:
Don’t complicate the first step. Just take it. Break the inertia that has been boxing you into your reality re-run for too damn long.
Make the decision to live today for the tomorrow you can be thrilled about.