There are many, many ways that would help to find happiness. There are also many, many ways we have of covering a lot of them up. So, I thought it might be a good idea from time to time just talk about a few of those ways that have worked for me at a time. That way, we can work them into our lives, see what works and what doesn’t and move forward to the next installment. So, here are the first 5 Tips Toward Happiness… IMAGINE HAPPINESS AS A COLOR Pick a color…any color and then in your mind associate that color with happiness. Whenever and wherever you see it, anytime of the day or night, remember some of the happiest things that have ever happened in your life. Also, whenever things aren’t going the way you want them to go, look for that color. If you can’t see it then imagine it, think of it and be happy… CELEBRATE, APPRECIATE AND ACT ON WHATEVER YOU’RE GIVEN TODAY Somehow we’ve convinced ourselves that it’s OK to put off things that will make us happy. Don’t! My Dad used to say that “When good is in the air, that’s the time to take a deep breath!” Don’t put things off or they will find someone else to appreciate. When something good happens, take the time to Celebrate it, to Appreciate it and then to Share it! (Which will make you even happier) DO SOMETHING FOR SOMEBODY ELSE Whatever the situation and wherever you might be, find a way to do something for someone else. It might be a compliment, have a pizza or a dinner delivered to someone, send some flowers, pay for the car behind you in the drive through, call someone just to say I love you or just tell them how much they mean to you…  REMEMBER THAT EVERY SINGLE PERSON WE’LL MEET TODAY CAN USE SOME KINDNESS Sometimes people can be a real handful! Sometimes we can be a real handful! Maybe, just maybe your purpose today is to fulfill their need for someone to bring kindness into their lives. Do that, and you’ll be amazed at how much happier you are too! IN ORDER TO BE HAPPY YOU 1ST NEED TO ALLOW HAPPINESS INTO YOUR LIFE There are times when we get mired so deeply into unhappiness or frustration or grudges or anger that we get comfortable with it, without even realizing it. That state of mind becomes our normal. As long as we’re in that state, we can’t make our way to happiness. The only way to begin is to acknowledge we are unhappy and what the real reason(s) we’re not happy are. Then make ourselves believe that what we really want, is to be happy! Remember that each of these 5 things are changes and changes in our lives are both  hard and seldom happen overnight. Remember a couple of other things too…You can do this and You deserve to be happy! Take a deep […]

A Culture Of Thankfulness  There are probably a million and one different ways to make life work better for us. There are themes, quick fixes, long fixes, self-taught, expensive and some are free fixes.  Some work and some don’t. Some might work for everyone, some for no one and every almost every degree in between.   Considering all of that information, I want to take some time to tell you about one that I’ve found that makes me a better person and makes my life a better life to live.  I call it creating a“Culture Of Thankfulness.”  Whenever someone mentions creating a “Culture of (Fill in the blank)” then there are bound to be questions that come to mind. Among them… —What is it? —How do I do it? —What do I get out of it? —Is this shareable? There are obviously more questions than just these but because of the scope I’m going to stop with these. Also, how to calm down and refocus on the life around us is intensely individual. So, I’ll be using the word ‘I’ much more than “we” or ‘you” so I can share my thoughts and my experiences and then leave it up to you to determine if it’s something that would fit inside of your life.  What Is It? What was I talking about when I decided to develop this Culture of Thankfulness around me? I guess first was simply a way to be happier in the midst of all of life’s challenges. In order to do that,  I kept hearing the words of my dad.  “Gregg, you can’t just be grateful for the things you want to be grateful for, you’ve got to find gratitude in everything!” So, if I wanted to find a way to be thankful for all of the things in my life, I needed to pay special attention to those things that I never realized I could find thankfulness or gratitude in, in the first place.  [NOTE: Thankful and Grateful are the same to me.  I’m sure there is a difference but to me, they’re interchangeable.] How Do I Do It? I made the conscious decision to employ this “Culture of Thankfulness” in every area of my life as opposed to gradually phasing it in. To be fair though, since doing  this for some time now, I’ve realized how thankfulness has found its way into different areas of my life and times of my life that I never would have dreamt it could have. As a result, I do my best to surround myself with thankfulnessfrom the time I wake up in the morning until I fall asleep at night.  When I wake up I lay there and start saying thank you. Sometimes it’s out loud, sometimes it’s just to myself. I keep saying my thank you’s, sometimes about specific things, sometimes to specific people but most of the time…I just start saying thank you and let it roll wherever it wants to on it’s own. (I also have to admit that sometimes I forget as soon as I wake up and I get up and move on […]