Category Archives: Happiness

#63: “Life is playfulness…”

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“…We need to play so that we can rediscover the magic all around us.”

– Flora Colao

As a child, I remember being told “you cannot go out and play until the work is done.” It turned out that there was always work to do – in the form of chores and schoolwork.

Years ago, I took a one-year course called The Wisdom Course that was all about bringing greater playfulness into my life. It was around this time that I left my 12-year corporate job to begin my coaching career.

As the saying goes, when you love what you do, you’ll never work another day in your life. Most days, my work feels like play.

Exercise:

How can you bring greater magic into your life by bringing more playfulness into your work and your personal life?

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#62: “The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow…”

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“The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow, but the rainbow won’t wait while you finish the work.”

– Patricia Clifford

Are you missing too many rainbows? Do you sometimes feel that life is passing you by? Do you tell yourself that you will have the time in the future – perhaps on the weekend or on vacation, or even when you retire – to get to the things that matter?

We cannot schedule life’s rainbows. We have to seize the precious moments when they occur.

Exercise:

How can you be more intentionally tuned into your world and find greater joy and fulfillment in life’s special moments?

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Be who you are

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“Be who you are, say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”

– Dr. Seuss, children’s author

Be authentic. Or, as Shakespeare said it, “To thine own self be true.”

But what if people don’t like us, or even reject us? There has never been a person who  pleased everyone. The best we can do is to please first ourselves and then those in our lives who truly matter.

Stop being a chameleon, constantly trying to change in order to please those around you. In fact, it is the natural human state of things to become more of who you truly are.

Exercise:

Determine what you value, what really makes you tick and your fundamental beliefs – and shout them from the rooftops. The people who matter will pick up your signal, and those who don’t were never really tuned in the first place.

#36: “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed…”

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“…Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”

– Denis Waitley, motivational speaker

Similar to the quote “the best things in life are not things,” this statement points to the idea that happiness, to a large extent, is an inside job. The work of building extraordinary relationships with others, our creator (or higher power), and ourselves is well worth pursuing.

The depth and full richness of the words love, grace and gratitude seems to be infinite and enduring, whereas the real world is finite and limited.

Exercise:

What efforts, practices, and habits, can you pursue and expand to enhance your happiness and your spiritual experience of living?

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