Perspective

I wrote a post on March 2nd called "Prioritize and Visualize". If you read straight on here and something doesn't make sense then go back and read that post. 

The one thing that ties all this together for me is perspective. I've always kept my eye on my goal but my perspective wasn't always good so I didn't put my energy in the right direction. I still stayed on track in the end as I was very committed to my goal but I took a lot of "detours" on my path. 

Once I got my perspective right my prioritizing was much better and I found myself much happier with what I was achieving (as I was actually achieving my goal) - and I continue to. I describe perspective as understanding what REALLY matters and worrying about that, rather than just what seems to matter or what others tell you matters, or whatever issue is slapping you in the face and trying to grab your attention. The bottom line for me - what really matters is what will truly give you happiness at the end of each day. I found that although watching a TV show made me happy on a certain level it didn't outdo the unhappiness I felt at not getting any writing done. So writing went up the priority list and TV down. I sold my TV 4 years ago and haven't watched one (including watching things on my computer) more than about an hour a week (if at all) since then. I'm no worse off for it. In fact, I'm much happier now that my perspective is good and I know that to truly be happy I have to write. Plain and simple.

I'm not anti-TV. I love watching a good TV show, documentary or movie. It just doesn't make it high enough on my priority list to get done usually. In fact, if I ever put TV high enough on my priorities to actually watch anything it's usually comedy as I feel laughter is good for you in so many ways.

To illustrate further, I thought always being prompt with e-mail replies made me happy, but again the happiness it gave me didn't outweigh the unhappiness of not getting writing done. Now my e-mail replies can be a bit tardy, but I'm writing, so I'm happier. I feel some guilt at my slow replies, but my own daily happiness is worth more to me (and to everyone else who's getting the e-mails - everyone prefers to get mail from a happy person.) So perspective helps you get your priorities right and this in turn gets you visualizing the right things. 

This is what I've found. I hope it helps you feel more "every day" happiness.