Applied Happiness Coaching

Contrary to popular belief, happiness is not a destination. Happiness is not someplace in which to arrive, rather, it’s the story of your journey to anything that makes you smile, inspires you, or motivates you to keep moving. In fact, you may not even be aware of the incredible trip you’ve been on for so long! Consider the places you’ve been, your struggles, your defeats, your triumphs – consider everything that brought you to where you are now.  It’s a pretty good story isn’t it?

So let’s take a look at some powerful questions.  Instead of looking at the goals you haven’t hit, or the achievements you haven’t managed to attain just yet, start looking back at what you did, what you learned along the way, and how it brought you to where you are now.  Instead of feeling a sense of disappointment or discouragement from unfulfilled desires, and asking yourself, “What’s wrong with me?” Instead, ask yourself “What’s right with me?  What are my greatest qualities?  Who has had the greatest impact on my life so far?  How have I impacted someone else’s life in a great way?”

One great way to get into the groove of appreciating you own power is to take stock of yourself.  You’ve heard me say this before, but it’s too important to only share just once!  Make an inventory list of all the strengths you feel you possess.  BETTER YET, head over to viastrengths.org and take the Values in Action – Inventory of Strengths assessment, and see a ranked inventory of your strengths right away!  It’s completely free, and pretty enlightening!

Now that you’ve taken stock of your strengths, you’ve become aware of your power.  Step Two is to make note of their impact in your life.  What triumphs have you experienced using your strengths? Recall an instance in which your greatest strength made an impact on your life or the lives of others.

See, the secret to happiness isn’t about working hard to cross the threshold into ‘the good life’ – rather, it’s becoming aware of the events, people, places, and feelings you’re grateful for in your life, and how they’ve made an impact.   Check out my post on The Gratitude Journal Review to learn more about getting into the attitude of gratitude, and getting more aware!

Peace, Love, and a million successes to you all!

Blake

Technorati Tags: appreciation, awareness, inspiration, journey, life, love, reflection

The world around us is often run at breakneck speed, and some of us consider ourselves lucky to have a moment to breathe!  There is a huge benefit in how you spend those ‘breath-catching’ moments, however.  Frequently those moments are filled with thoughts of what you still have to do, when they should be spent reflecting on what you’ve already done.  You can easily build strength, stamina, motivation, and drive simply by recalling your accomplishments, and how that success felt.

Savoring is all about enjoying, even relishing, the past moments with great appreciation, present moments of enjoyment, and even future golden moments by anticipating them.  Many people see that word and imagine having a meal and eating is slowly to savor the flavor, so to speak.  Truth is, savoring every moment, including a good meal, is an incredible psychological tool to boost positivity and motivation.

It strengthens in three ways: it prolongs enjoyable moments; it can act as a vaccination that protects you psychologically over long periods of time; and it intensifies positive experiences. So turn up the volume of your good-mood by basking in the enjoyment of your success!  Enhance it further by creating set-points for savoring later.

‘Savory-Set-Points’ are images, feelings, sensations – anything you can use to store your enjoyment for recall later.  Essentially, you can create positive memories for later by noticing details of things you enjoy now.  When something makes you feel great or accomplished, make a mental note of your surroundings – the sights, sounds, tastes, feelings, smells, and the people are great at pinning down memories for later. In fact, people can be quite instrumental in your quest! Share your story with them, and let them enjoy with you!

Narratives are often easier to recall, and the act of sharing often leads others to initiate the savoring in the future! Tell a great story, and people will bring it up, and re-savor that moment with you for quite some time after.  So without further delay, here is your assignment:

Write out one of your great stories – one that takes you, and the reader, on a journey of success. Take a stroll down memory lane and describe, in detail, the way you felt, how your peers felt and made you feel, whether you felt motivated or inspired, and end the story by describing how you feel right now – telling the story again.

If this is a story of a time that inspired or motivated you, you may find that simply retelling it can re-motivate you all over again!   This is one of my favorite exercises with clients.  Everyone loves to tell a great story – especially one that details an exciting, inspiring, or motivating experience!

Try it out!

Technorati Tags: appreciation, inspiration, love, reflection, stillness, success