The Strategies
Enjoy this experpt from the book Strategies for Happiness: How to Achieve Your Happiness Potential. To get the full story, Click here to order a copy today!
Create Your Opportunities
There is so much to do, learn, and experience in life that there's never a reason to ever get bored. Take the initiative and create your own opportunities. No matter what happens, when you are pro-active, you are in the driver's seat of your life.
What do you want from life? If you are not sure, don't just sit around waiting for something to just happen to you because you may not like the results. You can create your own opportunities by finding a need and filling it.
Develop new interests, start a hobby, take courses, volunteer. This may sound simplistic, but it's really worthwhile. Write a book. Whether you publish it or not doesn't matter. The exercise of researching and writing will help you to develop new skills and ideas. If you do publish it, bonus!
Give your new interests an honest try. It may take a few attempts to come to appreciate it. If you give up on the first try because you didn't like it, you might be missing an opportunity.
Take Responsibility
Being pro-active means you are taking responsibility for your life. Though your parents, spouse, and friends all want you to be as happy as possible, they can't do it for you. Only you have the power and the right to do that for your life. Your happiness is in your hands! Make the choice to focus on your happiness, and then take the actions to achieve it. You are in control.
Things do happen to us that are not our fault. It's so easy to just say, "It's out of my hands. . . I can't do anything about it. . . it's all his/her fault." However, it would be better to cultivate the ability to respond to our situation, rather then just reacting. When we take responsibility for everything that goes on in our life, we are in power. Being accountable for our reaction to events is an important step towards greater happiness.
Taking responsibility will create an abundance of freedom in your life. If you take responsibility, who can hurt you, who can get the best of you, who can abuse you? Your attitude and decisions are in your control. To understand this is to understand just how powerful you are, which is so liberating.
Creating opportunities is all about finding a way to see your dreams come true on your terms. It is not measuring success by what the world says, but by what you say. If you want to be a singer, don't measure success by the idea that you are discovered, have an album, and adoring fans. Being rich and famous may be nice, but if singing is what you crave, then sing.
It doesn't matter to whom. It can be in your basement. Maybe jamming with friends or by getting a gig at a local bar. This may not be as glamorous as being a famous rock star, but you are singing, and that is what is really important. Sing for your own enjoyment and don't worry about what others think. It is such a shame that people will not allow themselves the joy of singing just because other people think their voice is bad.
I am grateful I learned to be pro-active, that I can take charge of my actions and attitudes. I can and must take responsibility for my life, and by doing so, take control of my life. This concept transformed my way of thinking and living. So start today – take charge and make opportunities happen in your life.