“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” Dalai Lama
Happiness in life can come from many things.
From how meaningful you find your work to be. From a hobby you can get lost in for hours. Or from just being with the natural world around you and appreciating the warming spring rays of sun.
“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” Sydney J. Harris
“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.” Bertrand Russell
The most important thing for me to manage during my workday and workweek is not my time but my energy.
Why?
Self-kindness. When I tried to use my time in the most effective way it worked for a short while. But then my energy simply ran out and I felt stressed and it didn’t matter too much if I had freed up some extra time because I didn’t have the energy to use that time in a good way anyway.
I get more of the most important things done in a better way. When I manage my energy in a smart way I get more of the absolutely most important things done and my work is of higher quality.
Today I’d like to share three mistakes I have made – and think are quite common – that have certainly sucked a lot of extra and unnecessary energy out of me in the past.
The most popular promotions I have done in the last few years have been for the free Ultimate You Mindfest. Over 3000 Positivity Blog / Positivity Newsletter readers have signed up for it in the past three years and listened to the guided meditations called Paraliminals.
So I wanted to let you know that Learning Strategies is having another Mindfest that starts now on Monday, the 1:st of December. And it is a sort of a follow up to the popular Paraliminals program mentioned above.
It is called The Sonic Access Mindfest and each day for 4 days you’ll be able to stream a new Paraliminal. And you get access to the Goal Setting Paraliminal as soon as you have signed up.
The topics for this Mindfest and the recordings are success, health, relationships and spiritual growth.
We all face tough days or times. It’s a part of life.
But how you react, think and act during these tough times makes a big difference. With a helpful set of habits the outlook on life can change in a huge and remarkable way. I know from experience, I was a big, die-hard pessimist years ago.
So this week I’d like to simply share five of my favorite timeless tips on optimism. Fundamentals that the wise people that came before us have lived by for hundreds and thousands of years.
”Chi Wen Tzu always thought three times before taking action. Twice would have been quite enough.” Confucius
One of my biggest problems used to be that I thought too much.
I overthought any little problem until it became a bigger and scarier thing in my mind. I overthought positive things until they didn’t seem to be that positive anymore. I overanalyzed and deconstructed things until the happiness that comes from just being in a moment and enjoying it fell apart.
This locked me into analysis paralysis. Little action was taken. Opportunities were rarely used. Life stood still and felt confining. And my self-esteem plummeted.
Based on the emails I get I’m not alone in this. One of the most common questions I get is about how to not overthink things.
”Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?”
“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best — ” and then he had to stop and think. Because although eating honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.”
Winnie the Pooh is a kind bear. He cares greatly about his friends.
And he has always seemed like a pretty happy bear to me.
He’s also a favorite of mine so today I’d like to simply share 5 of my favorite happiness tips from that honey loving bear.
”Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?”