MalcolmGladwellMalcolm Gladwell’s assertion that a person needs to spend 10,000 hours practicing something in order to master it has popped up several times in my life recently. I was thinking about this, and the same could be said for cultivating a talent for seeing the positive or attracting what you want in life.

The longer you spend in a happy state, the happier you’ll end up being because you will have trained yourself to be happy. You’ll have spend the hours required to be a Master of Joy, a Guru of Bliss. Alternatively, those who spend a lot of time thinking back with regret or forward with trepidation get good at being miserable.

What do you want to master?

I’m really hoping you want to be happy. Getting there takes discipline, courage and dedication. It’s easy to let it slip away when you are stressed out, anxious, overtired or worried. I know – I was there a couple of days ago!

Here are ways you can spend your precious hours to bring more happiness in your life (or keep it going!)

1. Pause and take a moment to acknowledge it when something good is happening. Not all of us have the time or discipline to write in a gratitude journal or document what we are thankful for. But we can all stop for a moment when we are having a blissful experience and just be thankful and articulate our intention for more.

2. Find the ray of sunshine. Every dark room has a tiny ray of like peeking in. Just like a cat, find that single ray and bask in it. This might mean losing yourself in a good book on a long flight or finding solace in 5 minutes of quiet when you are on a stalled subway car. It’s not always going to be great and you’re not always going to find reasons to be happy when things don’t go well, but the majority of the time you can find the good in most situations.

3. Smile at people. I’m a smiley person naturally and I’m happy about that because it feels good to have a little goodwill with everyone I meet. Happy people who love themselves like other people as well. Smiling at people is a way of building your connection with the people in your community which feeds your wellbeing because people who are connected to their tribe are alway a lot happier than those who are not.

4. Wield the Power of No. This is one I have struggled with and have learned to do better. Saying no can be liberating. It’s an act of respect for yourself when you do this and you won’t resent it when you say yes, because you will truly be doing things because you want to.

5. Do the best you can and let it go. We are all hard on ourselves. We worry and stew over being good enough. We nitpick and refuse to finish a project. I find that when I do my best, it’s usually better than other people expect. And most often, if it’s something I’m still mastering, I learn from the not-perfect completed product and do it again even better next time. We think we only ever have one chance for anything. But we don’t.

These are a few things I’m trying to master right now and it is helping a ton. I’d love to hear your tips as well.

Love,
Danielle