“Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works.”
– Tom Peters
Have you ever noticed that it’s far easier to focus on what’s not working in life than on what is? That we have the tendency to obsess about what’s broken rather than celebrating the moments that are marvelous?
If you want to make your life easier, here’s a little secret:
Find out what makes you happy.
Do more of that.
If it works, keep doing it.
It takes awareness to keep your attention on what’s great. When you do, life expands in an effortless and natural way. You’ll find your own rhythm and begin to move in harmony with the universe. You’ll expand with ease, growing at your own pace, and turning your art into your innovation.
Below is a short exercise that will help you to reflect on your life, your relationship, or your career to evaluate what is working and how to build on that.
Doing What Works Exercise:
Take an area of your life (personal, work, family, relationship) and ask yourself the following questions:
Over the past one, two, or five years, when were you happiest? What were you doing?
Over the past one, two, or five years, when were you most unhappy? What did you do then?
Write down your answers.
Take some time to reflect.
Next, look at your life going forward. Based on your answers, what do you want to do more of? What were your happiest moments and how can you integrate the activities you engaged in then into your life on a regular basis?
Perhaps you realized that you really enjoy alone time; the moments when you have the freedom to do whatever you want without answering to anyone. You also noticed that forcing yourself to please others leaves you pressured and drained.
Based on those insights, create opportunity to spend more time by yourself.
Maybe you observed the exact opposite and realized that the moments when you forced yourself to go out and be social where filled with light and ease. In this case you would create more opportunity to spend time with friends.
Use this exercise to get rid of any guilt infused activities and add more pleasure to your life … so you’ll infect the whole world with your happiness.
As always, thank you for reading!
Karin
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Photo Source: aussiegall via Flickr under a Creative Commons License
