So I’ve been reading the happiness advantage. Basically it’s a guidebook to reprogramming your mind to focus on the positive and help you achieve more in your career. Basic premise is, are you constantly waiting to be happy? Always thinking to yourself, I’ll be happy when I get that engineering title, make more money, have more sex in my marriage. In truth the book teaches you can be happy right now, but your rising expectations lead you to always be thinking ahead to the next thing that will make you happy, instead of what you should be happy about right now. Also stresses that by deciding to be happy now by focusing on the positive and teaching you mind to think that way, additional benefits include helping you to excel in your career. We’ve all heard this sort of life lesson but I’ll admit I’m so often focused on where I’m going that I forget to be happy about what I’ve achieved.
The book gives a few simple strategies to help change our behaviors and to help us focus on being happier one day at a time. It challenges us to performing one of these behaviours, everyday, for 21 days, to create a new habit.
Gratitudes – 3 things you are grateful for in the last 24 hours, must be specific and must be different.
Journaling – write detailed experience of a meaningful event that happened in last 24 hours
Exercise – 30 minutes, daily and get your heart pumping
Meditation- take a deep breath, one task at a time,
Random Acts of Kindness- 2 min positive emails first thing in morning.
Going to start with the gratitudes.
1. I’m grateful when I woke up in the morning that my 3 year old little boy Carson gave me a big kiss and a hug. Always a great way to start the day. Just wish i could see him every day before heading to work, would make it so much better.
2. I’m grateful to be sitting here with my wife watching early episodes of Supernatural on Netflix, a show we both enjoy, especially the early ones. The show was much creepier early on.
3. I’m grateful to have had a chance to take a short nap while Megan was out of the house after lunch and Carson was napping himself. Set my alarm for and hour and half but it was a great nappy.
