Leadership & Life Coach for Women's Issues
Most of us do want to be happy. The problem is that we are waiting for someone or some event to happen to make us feel better. We have bought into the lie that a person, a relationship or some external situation is responsible for our happiness or lack of it. If we are unhappy, it is because the planets are not lined up correctly or someone else or an event or circumstance is to blame for our lot and our predicament.
The problem with this kind of thinking is as long as someone else is responsible for my unhappiness then – guess what? I don’t have to take personal responsibility for my life. It becomes an excuse I can hide behind. I don’t have to take any kind of ownership of my life. I can just move out of the driver’s seat to the back seat of my life and wait for someone or some event to move me into happiness. Actually, what I have really done is play the ultimate blame game and hand over my emotional well-being to someone else.
The truth is you always have the ability to decide or to choose how you will respond to the events of your life! The greatest gift you and have been given is the ability to choose or to decide. You have been blessed with free will. That means you get to decide. You always have a choice how you will respond to the events of your life. Even no choice is still a choice. When you and I come to that realization, it really can be quite liberating!
Roberta Flack’s parents drilled into her as a child, “you can live in the circumstances but the circumstances do not have to live in you.” Great advice! The happiest people are those who choose to be happy regardless of circumstances or the people around them. They decide that no one else will rain on their parade. They decide that they will get up and have a good day.
When you and I realize that we do have choices and are not powerless in this life, life can really be exciting. We get a new sense of ownership about life and find greater joy and greater contentment. We get back into the driver’s seat and that’s a great place to be.
