It's amazing what a little personal development and reading good books can do for you. I feel like my life has changed for the better.
The last time I really felt this way was about two years ago when I started reading a devotional every morning and dive into the Word. I had never really read much of the Bible, at least not at my leisure, and through spending just 10-15 minutes a day reading the Bible, I started to feel different. New. New perspective. Stuff in life feeling a lot less random.
Fast forward to the last six weeks, since becoming a Beachbody coach and working the business side, I feel like a new person as well. It's not just the working out or drinking Shakeology (although those things are awesome). A lot of it has to do with the personal development side. I think it's really cool to work with a company that really encourages personal development...you becoming a better person.
You would think that more companies would encourage this as a practice. Or, even better, ask their employees to start each day before opening email and attacking the day with reading 10 pages or for 10 minutes of a good personal development book.
In the past six weeks, I've read two books and I'm working on a third. I can't say that the books talked about anything crazy revolutionary, but it was more about learning to be consistent in behaviors, and that over time, those actions will lead to success. But, on the flip side, it's just as easy to not do those behaviors. I've seen myself choose to not do certain things because of fear, judgment, and other lies that my brain is telling myself.
I think it's great though to have personal development time to help myself rid my brain of those negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts instead. I can do this. I will do this. I am doing this.
Anyway, I'm currently reading The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson, and so far, it's my favorite book that I've read since becoming a Beachbody Coach. The concept is simple - consistent behaviors and actions over time will pay off. It's not overnight and the steps and actions that are taken are simple and usually go unnoticed. But eventually, over time, all of that will lead to success.
The chapter I read today is about the Secret of Happiness. Intriguing, right?
We all want to be happy, right? Well, the key to success is happiness, not the other way around. I think that popular culture indoctrinates us to believe that when we get X, Y, and Z then we can be happy. When we get that promotion or raise or buy that house, then we can be happy. But really, it's not true. We can get all those things and still be miserable.
Happiness is a mindset. It's a choice. We can choose to be mad, angry, miserable, and annoyed. Or we can choose joy. We can choose happiness. We can choose to be grateful and see all the good that there is. It's not fashionable to do that though. We live in a culture that thrives on doubt, fear, and negativity.
But imagine a world where you are happy. Imagine how that would influence your daily choices and actions. Imagine if you started each day with a grateful heart for all the things that you have in your life. Think about where that would take you in a week, in a month, in a year.
I'm seeing slowly but surely that happiness is a better bet. Being positive is a better choice. It's easy to be negative. To see the bad. I know that for a long time that was my usual default. I could find all the things that were wrong with something. It's still something that I work on every day.
I want to be happy and I want to be positive. It's actually the harder choice, in my opinion. Finding that silver lining. Seeing the good in a bad situation. Being grateful even when it sucks? Way harder than being negative about it.
Today I read about the Five Happy Habits:
- Every morning write down three new things you're grateful for.
- Journal for two minutes a day about a positive experience from the last 24 hours.
- Meditate daily for a few minutes.
- At the start of every day, write an email to someone praising them or thanking them.
- Get fifteen minutes of simple cardio exercise a day.
That's it. Simple enough. Yet, also simple enough to ignore.
I think I'm going to try it. They say it takes 21 days to create a habit, so why not create a happy habit?
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