Make Yourself Happy First

Do you fall into the habit of taking care of everyone else in your life and then having no time left for yourself?

It’s tempting to put others first and so easily done. It doesn’t require much discipline, thought or reflection and it often goes like this: “Let me take care of this, make sure that everyone is happy and then I have time for myself to do ___________.”

The problem is, it rarely happens. By the time you are done taking care of things you lost the steam, the desire and the energy to do what’s important for you.

It happens to all of us. In my life, when I lose my balance things get out of focus and my priorities get all mixed up. I start to worry about the smallest things, I feel more insecure, I am less happy and more needy. All of a sudden I wonder if what I wanted to accomplish is really such a good idea and whether I should wait until tomorrow to tackle it. It’s as if I lose my freshness and the juice to be me.

Keeping your balance and drawing from your own happiness – rather than waiting for others to do it for you – requires boldness, courage and discipline. Often it is easier to say yes than no. It takes guts to go for something that’s important to you. You have to think hard about what you want and stand up for it. You have to look fear in the face and possible rejections. What if you go for your own desires and things don’t work out? Well, it might happen. But you know what? Even that feels good because you had the courage to try.

If you notice that your priorities have slipped and that you lost sight of what makes you happy, here is a fun little exercise that you can do today to get your balance back:

Make a list of all the things that make you happy - This can be anything from working on your business, having fresh flowers in your house, gardening, sleeping in, starting a blog, visiting with your girlfriend, exercising, going on a date-night with your hubby, reading a hit novel, having alone time, etc.

Now, take one of those activities and put it into action right away. For example, buy that novel you are dying to read, schedule the date with your husband, go to one of the free blogger sites and set up a blog, call your girlfriend and invite her to have coffee.

Try it and let me know what happens. I love this exercise because it’s such an instant mood buster. I hope it helps you to remember what’s important for you.

If you like, share with us the things that make you happy in the comment section below, comment on my Facebook page, or simply write to me. I’d love to hear from you.

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And, if you’d like to work with me to discover your special rock star qualities, consider participating in a one-on-one session - for women who want to find their gift, fall in love with themselves and change the world!

As always, thank you for reading.

Karin

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Photo Source: Sushi Ina via Flickr under a Creative Commons License

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