The Happiness Lifestyle

how to make happiness a priority

Learn how to achieve happiness by defining your purpose, eliminating excuses & following the success paths of millionaires. We share a clear tutorial for living your best life. Let’s get started!

If you randomly asked anyone today what the most important goal in their life is, 9 of 10 people would likely respond, “I just want to be happy.” With such a universal goal you would think that more of us would be happy. Yet, why is it so unattainable? What is the magic “happiness factor” that is so elusive?

“To live happily is an inward power of the soul” ~ Marcus Aurelius

No matter who you are, what your profession, or what your current phase of life, we seem far from achieving our happiness goals. We are actually “too busy” to think about our happiness goals…we are all just trying to make it through our days. This is why there is so much jubilation every week when Friday finally hits! We are all trying to make it through the daily grind, our weekly packed schedules so we can “take a break” and rest. We’re all too exhausted from chasing what we think will make us happy…more money, a raise, our children’s success…but what about real happiness?

If you’re here and you’re reading this, you’re at least curious. “Maybe I’ll learn something.” “Maybe she’ll hit a nerve.” “Maybe…”

Well, the truth is, I’m after it just like you are. Except I’m tapping into some key practices, some powerful advice, some incredible wisdom, and I am inspired to share with you.

You Have the Power to Create Happiness, You Just Don’t Know it!

Turns out, the power resides with us. The power to create our own happiness lies in our own hands. We simply have to accept responsibility for it. Wow. So simple, of course, therein lies the crux of the matter. To take responsibility for it is to at once believe you have the power to create whatever kind of life you want and also to not let any excuse or anything get in your way. So, I’ll say it again in case you missed it.

1. Take full responsibility for your own life and happiness.
2. Make zero excuses.
3. Don’t give up until you achieve your goals.
4. Just don’t give up.

It’s deceivingly simple. Because while it is simple, it is not easy. But is anything worth having ever easy? I’ll let you answer that.

Define Happiness for Yourself

Well, in order to find happiness, you first need to define it for yourself. You need to understand yourself. To do so you must be fully honest with yourself. Because the self-talk in your head can be very convincing, so convincing that it creates your reality. The excuses you’ve been telling yourself you actually believe. It could take some real effort to recognize that what you’ve been telling yourself for years is actually fiction of your own making.

You need to figure out what it is that makes you feel so full you are ready to burst, so alive that you can hardly stand it, so complete that you can barely breathe. Think. If you don’t know the answers, it’s time to dig deep.

Think back over your life; imagine the moments, the chapters, the sustained periods of joy. Perhaps you experienced only fleeting seconds. Put a name to them. What brought you closest to true joy? Besides perhaps giving birth to your children or watching your wife give birth, for all you parents out there.

What brings you closer to complete fulfillment than anything else? This is a loaded question and an important one. And it’s okay if you need to think about it for a while to really get in touch with what brings you true joy. Take the time you need and figure this out. Your life and your happiness depend on it.

“Our fantasies are our realities in an excuse-free world.”

Jen Sincero, author of You Are a Badass. We highly recommend this book.

Why Aren’t You in Pursuit of Happiness?

And are you in pursuit of that dream now? If not, why not? OK, I’m ready. Lay on the excuses. I know, I have them too. Those excuses are a wall between you and your happiness, plain and simple.

Do you think that people who lead amazing lives are lucky? Without thinking about it too much do you just kind of assume that they “got lucky”? Actually, the difference between happy, successful people and those who limp along settling for mediocrity is determination and grit. Successful people go after what they want until they get it. Successful people have their eye on the ball and don’t take their eye off. They don’t make excuses.

What Differentiates Successful People from the Rest?

Author Jaime Masters who wrote The Eventual Millionaire: How Anyone Can be an Entrepreneur and Successfully Grow Their Startup interviewed over 300 millionaires and multi-millionaires to find out what they had that set them apart from the rest of the world. She admitted that before she began, she assumed they would be an elite group, that they would all possess some genetic trait, some kind of brilliance factor. It turned out they were more like you and me (and her), much more than she had expected.

What did set them apart was very interesting and important to note:

1. Focus. They know with precision what their top goals are, and they stay centered on these goals.
2. Constant forward motion, always improving, learning, growing, striving.
3. Know their own strengths and how to make the most of them. They are continually conducting self-analysis to maintain high self-awareness.
4. Know their own weaknesses and how to outsource the rest.
5. Commitment to the goal. They don’t allow excuses to stop you them.
6. Speed at implementation. They don’t waste time self-doubting, self-talking. Successful people don’t waste time wondering, worrying, debating in their minds. They don’t waste time period. They are decisive and move quickly. Time spent worrying is time wasted.

Time for Happiness

We all have the same 24 hours, 7 days a week. If you can master your time you will master your life and achieve your goals. If not, time is the number one excuse people make that they don’t go after their goals. How do some people with these same limited hours achieve great things? By implementing the 6 above-mentioned strategies. They make the absolute most out of each and every day we are given. Set the stage for success and you build your bridge to happiness.

The key is to figure out how to enter each day of our lives with:

• FOCUS
• INTENTION
• ANTICIPATION
• PASSION
• A BURNING DESIRE TO CREATE OR DO SOMETHING SPECIAL

Remember that every morning can be like Christmas morning. Actually, I think it can be even better. This is exactly what beginning your day with the Miracle Morning program does. It sets the stage of your life up for success. It has the power to change your life if you do it with commitment and consistency. No coincidence that the most successful people today and throughout history have started their days with the same or similar components as presented in this simple, powerful program.

Have you started the Miracle Morning yet? Click here to purchase your copy of Hal Elrod’s life-changing book The Miracle Morning if you haven’t already. Be sure to read my two previous posts on this topic “6 Simple Habits to Change Your Life” and “Choose Success | Live the Life of Your Dreams.”

Meeting the Challenges of Life

Life does not go smoothly for anyone. Happy people learn to turn problems and challenges into learning moments, moments in which they grow more than ever. They actually begin to thrive when the going gets tough. They start to recognize challenges and they go into high gear. Imagine the power you will have when you start to actually celebrate your challenges. Wow. And I promise you, it is entirely in your grasp.

I remember my husband and I training for running races together. When he was in high school, he actually was their winning cross country team’s coach. He coached himself along with the rest of his teammates to victory. He shared with me one of the winning strategies he had come up with. They trained on hills. So, during the races when they faced the toughest parts of the course and everyone was struggling on the hills, he and his teammates would kick it into high gear (quite literally) and speed on past everyone.

Happy people expect problems, they plan on them. They wait for them, and they kick it into high gear when they happen. They celebrate the “gift of the challenge.” Instead of letting setbacks throw you off course, allow the challenge to create new-found motivation and kick your creative problem-solving skills into top gear. Find happiness in learning and becoming better from the experience.

Learning Along the Road of Life

Another example I have from my own life is regarding exercise and weight loss. I have struggles with my weight, ever since college. Luckily, I found exercise at a young age and was able to find a successful balance with my diet and exercise over the years. I struggled with ups and downs like anyone but faced a whole new challenge after gaining 60 lbs with my first pregnancy.

I was 30 years old and facing the hardest challenge of my life. Looking at the scale I remember thinking about the 40 or so lbs that stood between me and my goal weight and getting excited. This was a whole new challenge. Yet I felt excited because I knew it was going to require all the skills and knowledge I had ever acquired about diet and fitness. It forced me to take my commitment and focus to a whole new level. It took me 9 months, but in the end, I was back fitter and stronger than ever before just as I knew I would be. I was committed, focused, and determined. There was no way I wouldn’t succeed. I saw my goal out ahead of me and was relentless in my pursuit. Any goal you go after with this attitude and commitment will result in the same.

Happiness Lifestyle: Let’s Chase Those Dreams

If you were in dedicated hot pursuit of your life’s dreams wouldn’t it feel like Christmas? You better believe it would. When you feel powerful and in control and in pursuit of your purpose, the reason God put you on this earth, it is better than Christmas. Don’t you want a life like that? I know you do, and it’s worth taking risks. It is worth getting up early (and going to bed earlier), it’s worth everything. After all, in the end you have nothing to lose but the fate of mediocrity. Let’s do this.

Also, don’t be shy. Jodie and I want to hear about your progress with happiness and your stories of success. We can’t wait to hear about the changes in your lives as you harness your powers and create the life of your dreams, one miracle at a time.