High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘Self-Discipline’

Oh sure, just what you wanted to hear, right smack-dab in the middle of the biggest party time of the year!  Here you are, stuffed full of cookies and fruitcake, (okay, maybe not fruitcake) and laying in the goods for the big New Year’s Eve bash, and you’re supposed to think about self-discipline?  Good one, hey?

Well, I only want you to think about it long enough to give the boys in the back room something to chew on.  (That’s what I call that clever part of you that delivers new ideas and solutions to you.  It’s a specialized division of your subconscious, if you will.)

Here’s the deal.  Come January 1 (And it’s coming fast!), you’re going to have this notion that you’re going to adopt some so-called resolutions and make a new, improved you of yourself.   You know, the one that’s finally going to be buff, and organized, and get the garage cleaned out and stuff.

That’s cool.  If that’s what really spins your wheels.  But if it’s only what you think you should do, forget it.  I happen to be something of an expert on goal-setting, and the one thing you absolutely have to know about choosing a goal is that it MUST be personally meaningful to you.  In other words, you have to really care about it and know why you want it.   If you’ve got that, you’ve got all you need to get there.

Now chances are, unless you have really been thinking about it, you only have some vague thoughts about what you would really like to achieve in the coming year.   If you know, great.  If you don’t, why not let your resolution be something along the lines of taking a couple weeks to figure it out and then get into gear.

Either way, once you have a fairly clear idea of what aspect of your life you want to develop, make a commitment to it.   That’s where self-discipline comes in.  It means you give yourself to your new direction whole-heartedly, that you’ll pick yourself up and start again when you backslide, that you’ll keep on keeping on no matter what, that you’ll learn and apply and practice everything it requires of you.

That’s where the happiness enters.  When you wake every morning knowing that your day has purpose, that you have a fresh opportunity to move in the direction you have chosen, your life has meaning.   And there’s nothing like a meaningful life to make you the happiest kid on the block.  I guarantee it.