Tiny Bites of Wagaliciousness

Do you ever feel like you’re a fixer? Like everyone turns to you to fix their problems or the problems happening around you? First, congratulations – when people look to you for help, they’re seeing you as a leader and a problem solver. Second, in almost every situation, don’t fix their problems because that’s not your job. The best help you can offer is to help them sort through the options and fix it themselves. Instead of jumping in to fix things, say to yourself, “I have no control here…give it up…let it go.” The more it feels like you need to fix something the more you need to let it go. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

When life throws you a speedbump, stop. Take a breath. Consider the possibilities. When you automatically react, you often make a choice simply because it’s what you’ve done before or what you’ve seen done before. Take a moment to examine the situation, think about what the options are and the likely outcomes of each, and choose the one that feels the best, instead of the one that feels automatic. Maybe you’ve heard, or even said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Automatically doing something because that’s the way you’ve always done it might not be insane, but it sure does put a plug in creative thinking! Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

There are always problems, and leaders deal with them in different ways. There’s a big difference between seeking the solution and placing blame. When you’re looking for the person to pin a problem on, you’re mired in the problem. When you’re looking for the solution, you’re in a more creative space, mentally – open to options, and being the kind of leader others like to be around. Placing blame is easy – finding the solution and inspiring your team to bring that solution into reality is mentoring in motion. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Do you have bad memories from childhood? Most of us have a few and sadly, some of us have a lot of bad childhood memories. What happened happened – you can’t un-happen it. You have the choice of either reliving those old stories inside your head, retelling them to others and keeping those bad memories alive, or you could let them fade into the background of your life. Every time you relive the bad things and retell the bad things, you keep them in the forefront of your existence as if they just happened to you – it’s the way your brain is wired. You can’t change the past – you can rewire your brain. When the bad memory crops up, distract yourself – sing a song if you have to – until it fades into the background. At first you’ll have to do this a lot – with time and consistent practice, those bad childhood memories will fade away – they’ll stop feeling like the definition of who you are, because they’re not who you are today. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Own your feelings. What does that mean? It means to embrace the fact that you feel the way you feel because of you. You’re not angry because someone cut you off in traffic, you’re angry because you took the action personally. You’re not hurt because someone didn’t call you when they said they would, you’re hurt because you set an expectation that you couldn’t control. And you’re not filled with love because the person you’re looking at is perfect, you’re filled with love because you’re choosing to focus on what’s perfect about them. You are in charge of your feelings and that’s a very powerful understanding, once you get it and put it into practice. Own your feelings. It feels so good! Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

When you feel fear, remember that on the other side of the fear is a dream. In that moment of fear, ask yourself what you want. If you’re afraid you don’t have enough money, the dream is to have plenty of it. If you’re afraid your partner doesn’t love you anymore, the dream is that your love is as strong as it was when it was brand new. When you’re afraid, stop and ask yourself what the dream is. Then, instead of focusing on the fear, focus on the dream. This is hard and takes practice and I promise you, it’ll open up your eyes to endless possibilities. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Quick – what are you thinking about right this very minute? My guess is that you were thinking about something that has already happened or something that might happen at some point in the future. While it’s fun to let your mind time-travel, what are you missing right now? There’s only right now and right now is the only place you can do anything. Allowing your mind to wander instead of focus leaves you powerless in the present. And powerless isn’t a very successful way to feel. Your power is only right now – focus on now and feel the power! Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Do you beat yourself up with regrets about the past? Regret is a very mean thing to do to yourself – you’re creating sadness and helplessness and hopelessness inside your brain, which then sets up the chemical state of those emotions inside your body, doing long-term damage to your system. Think about it – you’re powerless to change the past. When you indulge in regrets you accomplish nothing except to damage your mental and physical wellbeing. Sure, bad things happen, and sometimes we even did them. Instead of entertaining regrets, when memories visit either distract yourself or find a way to learn and grow from the bad experience. Your body will thank you for it! Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

No one can validate you except you. As humans, it’s natural for us to want approval from others – as a matter of fact, since the day we were born we’ve been taught to look to others for approval and validation. When you depend on others for your sense of self-worth, though, you give them way too much power over you. Decide who you are, what’s important to you, and use that as your yardstick for validation. Measure yourself against yourself and either approve of yourself and your efforts or decide how you’ll improve. It’s your opinion of yourself that matters because that’s the one you have power over. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Only people who are unhappy are mean to others. Really take that truth in – only people who are unhappy are mean to other people. People who bully are unhappy. People who are manipulative are unhappy. People who are suspicious are unhappy. When you understand that other peoples’ behavior is about who they are and how they feel about themselves, you’ll free yourself of the need to please everyone. You can’t please everyone because you can’t fix everyone. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

You know that wonderful feeling you get when you achieve greatness? That feeling when you have a peak experience? It’s because they don’t happen all the time that they are “peak experiences.” You can make yourself crazy trying to recreate peak experiences, or you can be happy that it happened and open to even more of them happening in the future. Those two feelings are completely different – instead of stressing yourself out trying to recreate something, relax, enjoy the fact that it happened and be open to it happening again, or to something even better happening. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Do you worry about what others think of you, your abilities and your actions? Sure, we want people to love us and approve of us and appreciate us, and it feels wonderful when they do. As a matter of fact, the approval of others gives us a shot of oxytocin, the hormone that promotes connectedness and a feeling of community. When you worry about what other people think of you, though, you usually worry that they don’t approve or don’t like you or don’t think you’re competent. When you do that, you cause a cascade of stress hormones to roll through your body, because your brain is reacting to your thoughts. You can’t know exactly what someone else is thinking, nor can you control their thoughts. Control yours – when you find yourself worrying about what someone else is thinking, remind yourself that what others think of you is none of your business. There – doesn’t that feel better? Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Getting angry at team members who make mistakes only teaches them to hide their mistakes. I’m not telling you to never get angry again – we’re human and have a full range of emotions that we’re supposed to feel and use. It’s good to remember how those emotions feel to others, and how our behavior changes the way others act when they’re around us. Mistakes are normal – we all make them. When you start to feel angry that someone around you made a mistake, put some mental duct tape over your mouth and think about how you want them to behave, not how you want to behave in that moment. Get angry and they learn to hide mistakes from you. Get supportive and use the moment to teach and they learn to trust you. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

In a magazine interview from 1968, genius filmmaker Stanley Kubrik said, “However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.” He was talking about life and the transformation of attitudes from childhood into adulthood, and about how we as humans make the choice to either become embittered by life or to recapture the wonder of childhood. Life throws us a lot of darkness at times – remember that you are your own light source and you have the power to light the way out of even your darkest moments. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Do you have a team member with a sharp tongue? Some people don’t understand the power of words to inflict damage so they don’t watch what they say to others. At your next team meeting, suggest to everyone that if someone hurts their feelings, pretend not to have heard them and calmly ask them to repeat what they just said. The hurtful words probably won’t be repeated – the culprit will clam up. And if the culprit does repeat herself, it’s an opportunity to coach her on how to be supportive, not snarky, with her co-workers. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Poet Nick Laird wrote, “Time is how you spend your love.” It’s interesting, isn’t it, the concept of spending love. Time is a precious, priceless commodity – it is here and then it’s gone, never to return. We all have a finite amount of time – we don’t know how much – so giving some of our precious time to another is indeed giving them a great gift. When you give your time to someone, you’re caring about them enough to give up a piece of your life for them. And if that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. As you spend time with people today, remember that you are loving them in a very tangible way. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Did you fail at something today? Yay…because that means you’re one step closer to getting it right. Maybe you do this too – I feel dumb when I get something wrong. It feels stressful until I remember to re-frame it for myself. You can do that, too – remind yourself that you weren’t born knowing everything and that living life is a continuous process of learning, adapting and growing. Celebrate your mistakes and even your failures as the opportunities that they are to be even better. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Moods are contagious – people can feel them even when no words are spoken. Our digestive system seems to do a lot more than just process our food. Researchers call it our enteric brain and are still studying what it and our primary brain are communicating about, because they communicate a LOT! Some scientists hypothesize that what we call a gut reaction is the enteric nervous system picking up clues about the environment and other people and reporting it to the main brain. So next time you sense what someone is feeling, trust your gut – it’s probably not lying to you! Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

When you think about the past, you’re thinking about it now. When you imagine the future, you’re imagining it now. Your brain reacts as if you’re living what it is you’re thinking about. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be your own thought police. If you’re remembering something that happened and you’re feeling sad or angry or frustrated, your body is filled with adrenaline and cortisol that match and support those feelings. If you’re thinking about something that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, your body is filled with serotonin and dopamine that match and support those feelings. What are you allowing your brain to do to your body right now? Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Your words are powerful. People count on your words to know what you’re feeling, know what they’re supposed to do as aftercare for their pet, know what they’re supposed to do as their job – the list goes on. Words are powerful, so choose them carefully. When you hurt someone with words, you can apologize and that might help a little bit but it will never take away the other person’s memory of how the words stung. And when you hurt yourself with your own words or thoughts about yourself, you do twice as much damage. Your words matter – they are powerful, and like a super-power, they can be used for good or for evil. Use your words for good, especially the words you use for yourself. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Loss is inevitable. Everything that lives eventually stops living – no exceptions to that have been discovered on Planet Earth yet. Loss is inevitable, so why does it sometimes feel so personal? “If I’d taken better care of my dog she would have lived longer.” “If I’d remembered to water more often, my peace lily wouldn’t have died.” “If I’d…” – well, you get the idea, right? We take loss personally, when it’s an inevitable part of living. The best we can hope to do is postpone the loss – we’ll never stop it. When you can see a loss coming, get as philosophical about it as you possibly can. Because loss is inevitable. Beating yourself up over it is optional. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Feeling like an imposter today? What does that even mean? I mposter syndrome crops up for most people at some point in their lives, often when learning something new or doing something that you haven’t done many times. Imposter syndrome often shows up when someone is on the steep leg of the learning curve, and that’s just when they need to give themselves some grace. When that feeling of not being good enough comes up for you, ask yourself what it is that you’re struggling to learn, and then focus on learning that. Buh-bye imposter syndrome! Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Just because you’re related to them, it doesn’t mean they can run rough-shod all over you. Do you have a family member who violates your boundaries? Ask yourself, “would I accept this kind of behavior from a client?” If the answer is no, then don’t accept it from a relative either. Don’t allow anyone to take advantage of you, even if the conversation to make it stop could be difficult. Come up with a way to lovingly help them understand what they’re doing to you. If the roles were reversed, what would your behavior look like to them? Express that and see if you can help them change their ways. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Do you feel like a compassionate person? This is a pretty stupid question to ask you, I know – you do what you do from a deep sense of compassion. So when you make a mistake, where does your compassion go? When you have to ask for help, where does your compassion go? When you say words you wish you hadn’t said, where does your compassion go? You are a compassionate person and you’re also human. Being human, by definition, means sometimes you’re not going to get everything right all the time. It means you do need to ask for help sometimes. And it means that words won’t always come out just the way you mean them. Remember that you’re a compassionate person. Give yourself compassion, too. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Resiliency is a muscle you can build. It’s the ability to adapt to new situations. You’ve done that your whole life. Resiliency is gracefully letting go of the things you can’t control. OK, for most of us, this one is a bit harder, and when you learn to let go you’ll feel the wisdom and peace of it. Resiliency is holding your calm center as the storm swirls around you. Resiliency is remembering to love and respect those around you, as you would hope they would love and respect you. Resiliency is remembering that you can trust yourself to make sound decisions because you’ve made good decisions in the past and can make them again. Your ability to be resilient is something that’s there and getting stronger with every decision you make. Trust in your resiliency. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Can you ignore someone’s poor behavior? How about ignoring someone’s annoying behavior? When you learn to ignore things that ordinarily set you off, you’re learning to create your own inner peace. When you allow someone else’s behavior to dictate yours, you’ve forgotten how to create your own inner peace. Let other people do what they do – they’re going to do it anyway. Your job is to learn to ignore what has irritated you in the past – you’re not in control of the other person, but you are in control of your own inner peace. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

John W. Gardner was the Secretary of Health Education and Welfare in the 1960’s, and in a speech he said, “No matter how hard you try to please, some people in this world are not going to love you – a lesson that is at first troubling and then really quite relaxing.” How could not being able to please someone be relaxing? Because the lesson is that it’s not ever your job to make someone love you. You truly can’t make another person love you – their feelings are their own, just as your feelings are your own. Your work is to be the best person you can be, no matter what others feel about you. Love yourself – that’s truly all that matters. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Do you know how strong you are? You are amazing – even on the days where you don’t feel invincible, you still show up, doing your best. Even on the days where hormones are your enemy, you still show up, doing your best. Even on days where your team isn’t getting along, you still show up, doing your best. Is your best the same every day? No – some days you’ll have more resources and some days not so much, but you still do your best every day. You are so strong and it’s perfectly human if your strong looks a bit different today than it did yesterday. You are still amazingly strong. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Guess what? You can’t know things you don’t know. Really think about that…you can’t know what you don’t know, so why do you beat yourself up when you don’t know something? We all do it, so don’t feel like you’re alone in this logical contradiction. You aren’t expected to know everything. You can’t know everything. And when you stop beating yourself up for not knowing, you open yourself up to learning something new. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Think about the long-term before giving out your phone number or allowing clients to contact you via social media channels. In the moment, when you want a client to update you on a particular case, it might feel right to give them your cell number. Be sure they’re people who will respect your boundaries in the future, because once they have your number, they have it. Maybe think about getting a second cell number to give out to clients so you don’t end up having to change your personal number because of an intrusive client. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Whether or not you have children, what you do matters and will matter for generations to come. Many people believe that the only way to have a say on the future is to populate it with their offspring. That’s one way, but not the only way. You affect the future with your actions, big and small, and how they touch other lives and hearts. Your caring smile when someone is hurting affects them as only you can affect them. You are a unique person, with unique knowledge. Your heartbeat echoes across eternity through the way you touch peoples’ hearts. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

You don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to. Think about it – some people just like to argue and will pick a fight with you so they have someone to argue with. And some people are really good at picking fights – if you’ve tried and succeeded before in ducking out of their desire for an argument, you can bet they’ll be back with better ammunition the next time. If someone is confrontational, you don’t even have to respond. Try it – it’s very effective to just put a placid look on your face while they try to lure you into a fight. If you feel you must say something, make it something soothing. You could say “I hear you and feel your frustration and am happy to have a conversation about this when you’ve calmed down.” Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

When we get busy and harried, sometimes we get a little impatient or short-tempered. If you don’t want your team reacting to your frantic energy, then take the bull by the horns – when you’re feeling busy or like you’re having to scramble just to keep up, much less catch up, stop. Give yourself a couple of moments to reset the mental game. Yes, you’re busy. And yes, you’re up to the challenge. Things will stay in flow only if you stay in flow, so take a minute and breathe. Remind yourself that you have been busy before and it all worked out fine, and it will this time, too. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Today, give yourself a huge gift. Have you considered how contradictory your imposter syndrome is? Other people believe in you, come to you and pay you for your expertise. You don’t think you’re good enough, for some reason, so you’re feeling like an imposter. And you question the judgement of the people who believe in you, instead of questioning your own self-judgement. When you’re struggling with imposter syndrome it could be useful to stop and make a list of all of the people who believe in you. Name names on that piece of paper. I f you wouldn’t call them a fool or a liar to their face, why are you doing it inside your head? Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

If you’re having issues with your team, do an experiment for one week. This will be tough and will require you to be present and focused on your own behavior. Here’s the experiment – before you step inside the hospital each day, think about each team member you’ll work with that day. Think about their good qualities only – no negativity allowed – and think about what you respect and love about each one. If it helps, write this down before starting the experiment and then you can read it each day before you go to the hospital. When you are 100% committed to loving and respecting the best in each team member, that’s what you’ll elicit from them. Go ahead – try this experiment and let me know how it goes Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Want to give yourself a huge hit of oxytocin? No, don’t reach for the syringe and dosing schedule, do something nice for someone. Called “the helper’s high” doing something nice for others gives you a hit of oxytocin. Maybe you’ll like doing what I like doing – drive-by’s. When running errands, I pay attention to the people around me and call it out. If a woman has a fabulous smile, I tell her she’s winning at smiles today. When a little girl has on sparkly shoes, I tell her she’s winning at shoes. The smiles I get tell me that they appreciate being noticed, and the feeling that gives me is at least as good at what I gave them. So today, try doing some drive-by’s and let them lift your spirits too. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Do you love it? Do it…whatever “it” is. Your work is a calling and can be very rewarding. It can also be very stressful, even on the best days, so it’s important for you to do other things that you love. Giving yourself a creative or physical or intellectual pursuit to pour yourself into is a wonderful way for you to ease the stress, stretch your abilities and feed your soul. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Can you ignore someone’s poor behavior? How about ignoring someone’s annoying behavior? When you learn to ignore things that ordinarily set you off, you’re learning to create your own inner peace. When you allow someone else’s behavior to dictate yours, you’ve forgotten how to create your own inner peace. Let other people do what they do – they’re going to do it anyway. Your job is to learn to ignore what has irritated you in the past – you’re not in control of the other person, but you are in control of your own inner peace. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Do you ever question whether you’re in the right profession? That’s fairly common in the veterinary profession, where a childhood dream became a passion and then a career. It’s normal to take stock in what you’re doing vs. what you dreamed you would be doing. If you find yourself questioning your career path often, it could be time for you to think seriously about what you want to do vs. what you’re doing. Don’t be afraid to make a different career choice, but don’t make any major changes without serious consideration. Career and life counselors can help you, as can going to your mentors with your concerns. Your degree is not a life sentence. You’re allowed to change your mind if you want to. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Think of your hospital team like a wolf pack. You’re all in it together and the survival of the hospital wouldn’t be possible without the contributions of each team member. Some are needier – think of them as wolf pups. Some, like new hires, are on the steep leg of the learning curve – think of them as the pack’s yearlings. The dynamics of the pack shift and change from month to month and year to year as the pups and yearlings grow, and yet all contribute to the success of the hospital, even the needy ones. Sometimes there are spats over perceived slights, yet when the dust clears you see that the only thing harmed in the spats were feelings. Wolf packs are highly social and specialized groupings – your team is, too. Focus on the strengths of your pack and watch it get even stronger. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Fence off your time off. Here’s what I mean by that – calendar your time off and respect that boundary. No one can be on call 24/7/365 and that includes you. A major part of mental wellbeing is ensuring that you have down time – time to recharge your batteries, feed your soul, read a good book, soak in a hot bath, go out with friends or just stay in your pajamas for a whole day. Decide what your work hours are, give it your all at work and fence off your time off – it’s yours and you earned it, deserve it and need it. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

We’re human…no matter how upbeat, no matter how successful, we’ll all have down days and sour moods. Yep, even researchers like me who study how to be happier have gloomy days. Part of being human is having a full range of emotions, and some of them hit hard and hurt. Our choice and our power is that we don’t have to live with those feelings forever. Feel them, fix what you have the power to fix, let the rest go, and then find a way to get on with your fabulous life. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Language matters, especially in stressful times. A very common phrase in the English language is “commit suicide.” Why might that be problematic? Because it’s judgmental – people commit crimes and suicide is a tragedy, not a criminal act. Consider “died by suicide” or “killed themselves” instead of “committed suicide.” I hope you never have to deal with it up close and personally - meanwhile, please choose compassionate words. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Did you know that what you eat for breakfast can affect your mood until lunch? Yogurt, bananas, nuts, berries and oats all have the power to move your mental attitude up, and so does dark chocolate, fatty fish and coffee. You don’t have to eat them all every day – just remember to add one or two of them to your meals for a natural mood lift. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

The older I get the more I understand the value of grey hair. Grey hair means you’ve fought a lot of battles and triumphed through them all. Grey hair means you’ve come to understand that some things are important and some things just feel important. Grey hair means you have seen the world change in profound ways and have the life experience to put those changes into perspective instead of fearing them. If you have grey hair (whether you dye it or not) celebrate the experience and wisdom it symbolizes. If you don’t have grey hair yet, recognize the value, perspective, and balance that the people who do have it can offer you. Either way, celebrate the grey! Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Sometimes it’s really tough to ask for help. Maybe you’re having to ask the same question you’ve asked before. Maybe the person you need help from intimidates you a little bit. Maybe you feel like you should be able to handle everything and shouldn’t have to ask for help. Ask anyway. When you allow someone else to guide you through a situation, you open yourself up to other ways of doing things and sometimes even other ways of thinking. You signal to the person you asked that you trust them and value their opinion, and that you’re coachable and teachable. And you let someone else help you out of the corner you feel boxed into by your lack of knowledge. And you learn. And it’s all good! Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Did someone say something hurtful about you? Maybe it was to your face, maybe behind your back or maybe it was the most cowardly version, a social media post. They shot a proverbial arrow and it hit you hard. You have a choice in what you do. You can embrace the wound, show it to everyone you know, talk about it to anyone who’ll listen – and by doing that, you enlarge that wound and don’t let it heal. Instead you can take the other choice – stick a band-aid on it and move on. Don’t give it any of your mental energy, your time or your emotions. Let it go. Let.It.Go! What was said may have had your name attached to it but it wasn’t about you. Hurt people hurt people – that incident was about them, not you. Smack a band-aid on that wound and move on with your fabulous life. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Has life just thrown you a huge curve ball? I’ll never forget how hurt, and how frightened I was the night I found out my 30-year marriage was over, and it felt like the fear and pain might last forever. Of course it didn’t, and it won’t for you either. Lean on your friends and let them remind you that smiling and laughing is still part of who you are. Make plans and keep them. Change up your routines, think about doing things that you didn’t think you could do before the curve ball landed in your life…and then do them! Getting through a major shift in life is a mental game, and you are one of the smartest people I know. I promise you, nothing lasts forever and you’re not alone. You’ve got this, whatever your “this” is. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

For a minute, think about your life like it’s a map in the mall. You know the one – all the stores laid out before you, with a little red “you are here” mark so you can orient yourself. You don’t judge that little red mark, or chastise it for being in the wrong place. You simply make a mental note of where you are in relation to the store you want and then you take the steps necessary to get to that store. In your life, you are here – you are where you are and how you got there doesn’t matter. You are here – where do you want to go? Plan your life just like you’d plan your mall outing – observe where you are and take the steps necessary to get to where you want to go. Don’t judge yourself or chastise yourself – you are exactly where you’re supposed to be, going to where you want to go, and it’s all good and getting better. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

What is the definition of optimism? Oxford’s online dictionary says it’s hopefulness about the successful outcome of something. My mom said it’s knowing how to find the silver lining in even the darkest clouds. Some days it feels like optimism is the definition of lunacy! In day-to-day life, optimism is continuously reminding yourself to give even difficult people the benefit of the doubt, looking for the best interpretation of something that stung a little bit and reminding yourself that so far in your life, you’ve made it through 100% of the problems you’ve faced, and the most difficult ones helped you learn and grow as a person. Optimism is the life jacket you wear all the time and will save you in difficult times. Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"