February 16, 2011
When You Choose Happiness First, It Helps You Achieve All Your Other Goals
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Did you hear the story of the grasshopper and the ant when you were a child? The ant worked hard all summer gathering food and building a home with all the other ants. The grasshopper spent the summer playing around and enjoying his life. When the winter came, the ant was warm and well fed, and the grasshopper was cold and starving. The moral of this fable is that we should work hard to prepare for the future instead of playing around.
While it is true that we human beings like to accomplish things, it is also true that we can over do. In fact, the pressure to overdo in the US is considerable. We work longer hours and take fewer vacations than most of the other industrialized countries. High unemployment and a poor economy just intensify the pressure to work harder and harder. This hard work often leads to burn out, depression and a scarcity mentality where we stick to what we know and hoard our riches without enjoyment so no one can take them away from us.
We need creative solutions to get our economy going again, to create sustainable futures, and to create world peace. Once we reach a basic level of prosperity, happy people are more likely to develop these creative, win-win solutions than their more ambitious peers. I believe that the more happy people we have in the world, the more productive, peaceful, beautiful and sustainable our world will be.
To help spread that message to more people, I have entered a contest to write a self help book called Happiness First. You can watch a short video about the book and see the other contest entries at the Next Top Author web site. If you like the book idea and would like to help me advance to the next round of the competition, please register at this site and vote for me. Part of the competition is gathering votes at each round. This round lasts until the end of February.
Please, check the link and tell your friends to spread the word that the grasshopper was right after all.
When We Choose Happiness First, It Helps Us Achieve All Our Other Goals!
Affirmation
I take time every day to enjoy the wonderful life I already have. I consciously choose to expand my happiness every day. I know that I can learn to be happier and I do everything I try better when I am happier.
Journal or Meditation Question
When was the last time I was conscious of being happy? What was I doing? When have I had the experience of having things go better for me because I was relaxed and feeling good? When did I help motivate someone else by helping them feel good?
If you like the Happy Life Tip of the Week, please pass it along to your friends and help make the world a happier and better place.
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