Stop Waiting for Happiness

Happy Monday, my friends! It’s a new week with new opportunities to shine and be a blessing to someone. Can you believe there are only 5 MORE WEEKS TILL CHRISTMAS?! This year is just flying by. I hope we can all slow down enough to enjoy this holiday season that’s upon us!

If you ask anyone what his or her number one goal in life is, the answer is almost always – happiness. Whether that happiness is found in family, church, work, or a special hobby, we all want the same thing. Today’s Motivational Monday is all about not waiting for happiness to find you. It will not fall out of the sky. You will not just wake up happy every day. You have to choose happiness. I’m sure you’ve all heard “Money can’t buy you happiness.” My dad always likes to add, “But it will buy you a Cadillac so you can drive around looking for it.” Whatever your take on happiness, let’s make a pact to pursue happiness together.

A happiness challenge. You may have heard of or even read Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project and Happier at Home. I am going to make my own Just Me, JC twist of a happiness Challenge. That’s right! A challenge! I double-dog dare you to challenge yourself with a happiness goal. With the holiday season upon us, we may think this is the “most wonderful time of the year” and that happiness naturally occurs around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Unfortunately, many of our friends and family get depressed and withdrawn around the holidays. Let’s gather some excess happiness from our challenge to share with others.

Step One – Forget what you think you know about happiness. Nothing external will make us happy. It’s all on the inside, folks!
Step Two – Write it down! We all know I’m deathly afraid of dementia and am a strong advocate of journaling. I want to remember my life – good or bad. But we are going to just focus on the good. Write down one meaningful thing that has happened to you today. Is it a huge Godstop where you see evidence of God’s love and provision? Or is it the simple fact of having a good hair day? Write it down.
Step Three – Do one thing a day for someone else. Simple enough. Use your imagination. How can you bless someone today? When you think of it as blessing someone else, not a chore or something you just have to do, it will greatly increase your willingness and happiness.
Step Four – Choose to do one thing a day that makes you happy. Is it reading? Or exercise? Maybe it’s a craft or just loving on your pup! (Pets are an infinite source of happiness! See my past post on Peanut!)
Step Five – Rinse and repeat. Or just repeat. You don’t need a 31 day plan of happiness, let alone a year-long project. Just choose to look for the good in each day!

What comes to mind when you think about happiness? Do it! Let me know who’s accepting the happiness challenge in the comments! I’d love to hear from you!