It has been quite some time since I posted anything on this blog but I recently decided to jump back in and start sharing some ideas I’ve had during my time off. For today, I’d like to share my “formula for success” when it comes to setting life goals for myself. I’ve used this approach a number of times and it has always worked for me and allowed me to get from point A to point B successfully.

In today’s post I want to talk about the last step in finding happiness, and that is realizing that You Are Enough.  I know that may sound over simplified and in some ways it is a very simple concept. But this is one of those things where it’s easier said than done.  You could easily walk around telling yourself, “I am enough” day in and day out, but unless you truly believe it, that won’t do you much good.

I know that the title of this blog post may make it sound like I’m about to dive into religion or theology, but that isn’t the case.  To me, prayer can be done in a number of ways and the tips I’m going to give in this blog post are not based on any one religion.  In fact, it doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, Buddhist, or anything else. 

The whole point of today’s blog post is to acknowledge that there is some type of higher power in charge of your life.  And the point of focusing on that idea isn’t so you have an excuse to give up or to resign yourself to someone else’s plans for your future, but rather to realize that you’re not alone.  There are bigger forces at play in the universe and we can either ignore that or embrace it.  As you can tell from the title of this blog, my recommendation is to embrace the help you can get from God or the Universe, or whatever you want to call it.  So let’s dive in, shall we?

Have you ever had one of those days where you get out of bed and something small happens that gets on your nerves?  Sometimes what happens next is that you continue through your day and keep getting annoyed by more and more things until it feels like your day has been ruined.  I think of that as a snowball effect where one small thing slowly gathers speed and picks up other small things until you’ve had a really crappy day. Sound familiar? Keep reading…

So far in The HAPPY Series, I have given you a quick introduction to the five tools of happiness and we’ve also talked about the first tool, which is Having Gratitude.  If you haven’t read those blog posts yet, feel free to use the links to go check them out at some point.

Today, we’ll be looking at the next tool on the HAPPY list, which is Accept Your Problems.  I also like to think of this one as “Let Go”.  First and foremost, I want to be clear that when I say, “accept your problems”, I don’t mean give up and quit trying to live a happier life.  I’m also not trying to suggest that you just ignore your issues or pretend like they’re not there.  

Are you a worrier?  Do you feel like you spend too much of your time focusing on what could go wrong instead of noticing what is going right in your life?

What about feeling like you need to be perfect?  Does it seem like all you do is try to measure your life against other people’s lives and always feel like you’re falling short of some ‘ideal life’?

And how are your stress levels lately?  Are you constantly feeling the pressure to get things right and maybe even feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders?

Do these sound familiar?

You’re not alone!  I think most of us can relate to some or all these issues, whether they are temporary problems or feel more like a permanent fixture in our lives.

In my last blog post, I talked about hitting rock bottom and bouncing back to become the happiest I’ve ever been.  Today, I want to introduce a new series to you where I will walk you through easy and straight forward ways you can start finding your own unconditional happiness for yourself.  I’m calling it the HAPPY Series.

This is by far the scariest post I’ve ever written.  I am used to putting on a smile and presenting a perfect picture to the world, so admitting that it’s not true is terrifying.  And to be honest, I’ve spent so much time lately focused on helping other people and giving advice on how they can find their own happiness, that it seems weird to spend an entire post talking about myself.  

I do realize, however, that my story might resonate with some of you out there.  My hope is that you will see that you are not alone.  I’d like at least one person out there to read this all the way to the end and see that there is a happy ending.  Hopefully by sharing my story I can help you find your own strength to keep fighting for your own happy ending.