Can We Choose Happiness

“Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.” - Daphne Du Maurier

Can we choose to be happy in life or does it just happen?

There are people who believe happiness is something which only gets bestowed upon the lucky people in life. If you were not given the gift of happiness you are simply one of the unlucky people.

Happiness is what you want it to be.

You can choose to be happy or not within the circumstances surrounding your life. Finding and understanding those things which are good in your life, a path to happiness begins.

There are lives of people we could never imagine them finding happiness. Children and adults finding the littlest of things to create their happiness from. Each day people from all different backgrounds, economics and health find their happiness. They build upon the happiness found, that glimmer of sunshine.

It is not simply making the choice to be happy, but is a group of action in total which add up to creating a happier life. You see, we can never change what happens to us in any given moment. But with awareness, we can choose how to respond to it. As we make different choices, positive choices, in response will begin to create a life lived with more content, opening the way for happiness to enter more often.

Choose to be happy.

Stop expending energy in complaint and unhappiness. Your stress will be lower. You will have the ability to direct your energy towards change if required or towards enjoying even more happiness.

And stay inspired my friends.

AUTHORS NOTE: Happy Birthday Mom. Miss you but I'm still laughing in life.

I Choose to Be

On Choosing to Live Well

Lee Wise

I choose to be grateful, not hurtful.
I choose to be better, not bitter.
I choose to be content, not critical.
I choose to be attentive, not indifferent.
I choose to live well, not just live.

We all can use moments of direction in life and I am one that does not always succeed in meeting those things "I Choose" to be.

But the statements do give me reason to reflect and goals to achieve when I have nothing else.

You can choose to live your life hurtful, bitter, critical and indifferent, simply living life.

Or you can choose to be grateful, better, content and attentive, while living well.

It is your choice, it is your life; choose to live it well.

Stay inspired my friends.

Choose a Path

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.” - Lewis Carroll

Making a choice when you come to a crossroads is not an easy thing to do.

You look down each road and wonder which to take.

You stand there faced with only three real choices;
...choose a path.
...stand where you are forever.
...or go back to where you came from.

You already made a choice that placed you at this crossroads.

Choose any one of the roads and let change take place.

If you find the choice isn't right, you can always change.

That's the great thing, change can take place.

Stay inspired my friends!

Step Taken

“To establish true self-esteem we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives.” -Denis Waitley

Each of us have small amounts of self-doubt or even large problems with believing in ourselves at various times in our lives. It can be a very debilitating way to live. Your successes or failures in life are mostly dependent upon you as opposed to those things being handed to you.

Even if you are handed success, you can either succeed or fail once given it. Others can have all of the belief and faith in your abilities, but you need to have belief in yourself for success to actually happen.

If you find yourself at a point of just sitting on the edge of your bed, wondering what to do next, may you need to have a talk with yourself. Ask yourself if you are being negative or positive about your life. If negative, a starting point for change has just been found. It isn't easy, it takes time and work to turn your inner ship of negative thinking. But with practice and continued inner talking, you will change those habits.

You will also need to become what is termed a 'chooser and decider'.

You make the choice to have a great day. Don't let someone else be the determination of your attitude. The person that cuts you off in traffic, only you can decide if that circumstance is going to make your day a good one or a bad one. There are many examples just like this. What you have to do is decide to be in charge of your own attitude.

It all begins with these steps we take in life. A small step forward here and a small step forward there; pretty soon you will be on the path to a great life.

NOTE: The picture is of one of my grandchildren. It reminds me that there will always be one first step taken, and that each of us can take this step at any point in our life. Whether 100 minutes or a 100 years old, change happens when we put one foot out to take a step.

Stay inspired my friends in each step you take.

Your Wake Up Call

"A man is what he thinks about all day long." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every day that you wake from sleep, you have a choice to make regarding your attitude. If you choose to think in a negative fashion, it will be a negative day you will have. If you choose to believe nothing will come to fruition in your life, than nothing will. What you believe in yourself will dictate what will happen.

Why not choose to believe in better things for your life. Why not believe that the day can be good. Why not believe in those around you. Why not believe in yourself.

Choose today that things will be good.

You Can Change

"Scared and sacred are spelled with the same letters. Awful proceeds from the same root word as awesome. Terrify and terrific. Every negative experience holds the seed of transformation." -Alan Cohen

How many times have you been moved to change by an event? It may have been an event that tore down into your comfort zone. An event that turned your view of life upside down and altered much of what you knew.

These events may have been small or large, hurtful or only irritating and maybe un-planned. At the time of these events we give them huge weight in our life. We lift and carry them like boulders, struggling to proceed with anything meaningful. We give these events power over our lives.

But from every burden in our life, we have a choice to make. We can continue to allow the event to control our being. Or we can choose to turn the event into a positive change. We have the ability to overcome and transform our life into something greater.

Throw down the boulders you might be carrying. Throw down the negative and choose to move beyond its control. Choose to live your life.

Choose The Life

"Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be." ~Grandma Moses

So how do you make a great life? Is there a procedure manual laying about in some box that someone forgot to give you? Can we perform an internet search and find the perfect blog? Or maybe there is a college course we can take that wasn't listed in the general catalog.

Unlikely and very impossible to achieve without just living life. Getting up every day and putting yourself out there will teach you the most. It is likely you will get hurt along the way. It is likely that you will make mistakes. But it will be the life you make it.

I had always thought there was some secret to all of this. A well kept secret that no one would ever tell me. A secret so hidden that if only I found it, my life would achieve greatness.

Then it happened on a rainy day, sitting on my back porch. It was my life and it was mine to determine how I felt about it. It was a pact between my God and myself to make it a great life.

You have the ability to create a great life as well. It is up to you to change the way you think, the way you feel and the attitude you choose. It is your choice. Make it a great one.