1 Million Dollars in 365 days…

Ok folks, as you can see, I’ve stepped up to the mark and am blogging every second day - part of my 30 day program! And I’m really enjoying it

So, I posed the question “Where does happiness live?”. I thought if we could track down it’s location it may be easier to locate when we need it. Where do I start looking though? Then it hit me - that magic binary machine that is google…

As with most things, I went to the first link - the one with the highest ranking on google. Turns out it was written by a lady named Helena Aramendia:

“Probably the most important thing that I see is that happy people do not identify with their life or their situation. This is my personal definition of freedom. They do not rely on any external factor in order to feel happiness. They are happy even if, at a given moment, they feel upset, or sad. They “are” intrinsically happy even if they “feel” different emotionally at some point. That makes me think that if both feelings are possible at the same time, it is safe to conclude that happiness is not an emotional response, but a state that is generated and developed at a deeper level. Is happiness a state of the soul ?”

This is a really good article and I would suggest reading it if you have a few minutes. It gives a great perception on happiness and how we can achieve it. There are lots of ideas, from meditation, affirmations, thought patterns, through to volunteering, karma & religious beliefs.

Read the full article here....and choose to be happy

So it’s the end of the month. January for the year 2009 and it’s almost all but over. How has this month gone for you? Have you been improving your life and feeling more empowered every day? Or have you stayed the same, in which case some might argue that you were going backwards?

Either way - the month has passed us by. We will never get those days back, those precious minutes. Does it matter? Only if you are looking back right now and thinking “I wish I had done a bit more of this” or “I wish I had started to work towards this goal”.

What stopped you? Unfortunately folks - we only have our selves to blame. I believe that we have complete control over our lives. Now some of you might think that’s a lie. If we have complete control, then why does bad stuff happen to us.

Well, I said we have complete control of OUR lives. In other words, if something bad happens to us, we have control over what happens next. Are we going to let this thing annoy us, anger us, and consume all our energy? Or are we going to accept it, see what can be learnt from it, and move on, a little bit wiser than before?

The choice is yours. And it always has been. It wasn’t that long ago when I came upon this realisation and to ber perfectly honest - it has changed my life. I feel so much more powerful, knowing that I am in control. Sure, there are things that happen that I can’t control, but I can control how I respond to them.

That means that when someone cuts me off in traffic, I can chose to not let that person use up MY energy being pissed off at them. I can then chose to go on with my fantastic day and not let it bother me. I can also be grateful that I don’t drive like that and that no-one was hurt by their foolish driving.

The flip-side would involve me getting very pissed off, honking the horn, pulling the fingers at them. They might pull over and things escalate into full on road rage, or perhaps they pull the fingers back at me and continue driving. Then I spend the next 30 minutes angry because this jerk pulled in front of me.

I get home and see my wife and kids and I’m grumpy and mad, not at them, but I’m short with them and impatient because I’m still incredibly pissed at that jerk! Not only has this ruined my morning, but now my wife is mad at me because I shouted at the kids. I didn’t mean to shout at the kids - I was just mad at the jerk who cut me off.

So it’s not really fair that my wife’s mad at me. So now I’m mad at her cause she’s being unreasonable and I end up going out to the pub and drinking because I’ve had such a crap day. At least at the pub I can talk to other guys about their crap days and we can all feel sorry for ourselves together.

See how easily one little event can change an entire day, month or even your whole life! So next time something bad happens to you, remember this story and remember that you have the choice to choose how you want to react.

According to this definition of karma, The effects of all deeds actively create past, present, and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one’s own life, and the pain and joy it brings to him/her and others.

I can see why it’s a very taboo subject - who wants to be responsible for their own life? I mean, if something goes wrong, do you really want to say that you take responsibility for it? Most people don’t. I guess that’s why most people live “average” lives, week to week, never really “making it”.

So does this karma thing exist? Well, I think so. I think that our past definitely can come back to bite us in the butt. Even if it doesn’t exist, I think it’s a great way to live your life.

“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours”

Wayne Dyer

Again this goes back to choice. We all have the choice of choosing the way we react to anything and everything! Choice is such a powerful thing. It let’s you change any situation in either an empowering way or a dis-empowering way.

Imagine that you owe someone $50.00 It’s from ages ago and they probably don’t even remember that you owe them the money. One day you’re going about your daily business when you remember that you owed them that money, and you haven’t yet repaid your debt.

So do you “ignore” that memory and continue doing whatever it was that you were doing? Or do you think to yourself that you really must pay that debt back, and maybe you write a little note to remind yourself. Next pay day you deposit the $50.00 into that person’s bank account.

1. Which outcome would you feel more comfortable about?
2. Now which outcome have you actually experienced?

So next time you’re in a sticky situation, ask yourself “I am reacting in an empowering way or a dis-empowering way?” If it’s the latter, then you have to time to change your reaction. Choose the empowering way and take a chance on Karma…