How To Always Have A Great Day!

"I am focused on what I am after
The key to The next open chapter'
Cause I found a way
To steal the sun
From the sky
Long live that day
I decided to fly
From the inside" - Shinedown

I've said goodbye to bad days long ago. The only difference between a good day and a bad day is our perception of each situation, that compiles our day, and our attitude towards each of those situations. It's truly senseless to extrapolate one minute's misfortune into the next, yet that's exactly how bad days are created. Each moment, as it comes and passes is isolated from the last and the next. They are only connected in the human mind (through past memories and future predictions of course) to be summed up into minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and so on. Instead of differentiating one moment, from the next, we hold on to our misfortunate moments and extrapolate more of them in the near future - even though we are bad fortune tellers. We lose the opportunities of the present moment by practicing this self sabbatical ritual . If we learn, instead, to have bad moments, that still leaves the potential to have an overall good day. I don't have bad days, I have bad moments and sometimes many of them. I still have overall great days - because I choose to.

"I have never had a bad day, when I didn't choose to." - Unknown

I learned about eight years ago, from an old sales job, that the first thing I do everyday when I wake up is to make the decision to have a great day. I declare it, "This is going to be a great day!" I say great because, by doing so, the least I usually have is a good day. This works right from the start because your subconscious mind believes what you tell it. It has no choice because knows no different. Believing it makes you smile which releases serotonin, a chemical that makes you happy. That makes your declared statement true. While we're talking about what role the mind plays, it's important to tell you to watch your thoughts throughout the day and keep notes of where they take you. Try to never travel, in your mind, to other times and places (else when and elsewhere). Give it your best to stay connected to the here and now, real-time, direct experience within and in front of you. These other times and places will sabotage your happiness. Your thoughts will trigger your emotions which will decimate your happiness. It's been clinically proven that what you think about most creates your most frequent emotional states. For example those who think constantly about depressing things are depressed (Not manic depressives. We're just talking about general depression here). Regret, anger, blame, hate (a word I don't really use or care for) and judgment take you into your past. Anxiety, worry, fear and stress come from thinking about the future.

Only when we think about right now are we most often free of all of these. That's why happiness only exists in this present moment - any present moment. Try to always stay focused on the good things around you in this present moment. If you find yourself focusing on other times and places think about a dvd player. Most of them have a chapter select/skip button on the remote, that comes with it. You can select either a happier chapter in your past, or even more advisable, skip to now and get back to your present to make the most of your opportunities here and now. We fall victim to the belief that something will make us happy in some future day, from time to time. Some of us even fall victim to the belief that some possession is making us happy, even if we can barely afford it. As I've stated before these people are possessed by their possessions. The person may think he or she owns the material object, but in truth the material object owns the person long before the situation turns around. We've all seen them; the ones who work twenty hours of overtime every week just to keep that sports car. Not only do they sell off their freedom, but they usually buy into a depreciating dream. By the time the item is owned it's worth less than was paid for it and irreplaceable time was lost working towards it too. The possessions aren't what we really want. What we really seek is the happiness we think the possession will bring. The real truth, whether you want to hear it or not (It's the truth after all, either way) is that the simpler you live and the simpler you keep things, the happier you'll be. Think about when you were a child. You didn't, hopefully, (some of us did) have to worry about a house/apartment, a car, bills and groceries. The more things we take on, the more stress comes attached to them - yes I do often say responsibility alleviates stress. What I mean when I say that is that making sure that you accept reality and do your best to make the best of it, so that it benefits you. IE. Pay your bills on time (It's a good habit and it'll help you live a better tomorrow).

In our everyday lives we all, once and awhile, come into real, rational reasons to have a bad day. The illness or death of a loved one would be justification of a bad day. Spilling your coffee, dealing with traffic and your boss yelling at you are all temporary moments in your day. They're not your whole day, so don't project them. To me as long as all my loved ones, friends and myself are all healthy and alive then all is great! Don't defer your happiness, choose it, today - right here and right now. As my friend, Roger says, "Life is about ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react to it." Yes, there are times when a reaction comes into the proactive lifestyle and you must recover the moment by taking action to counter it and regain control. In this case regaining control is to remain happy!

I hope, intently, that you are always surrounded with an abundance of happiness of and by your own choosing. I hope you're having a great day! Steal the sun from the sky and keep it within you. Fly from the inside. After all, what good is any level of success if you are not happy. Happiness is the only true success.

"Don't take life so seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyways." - Dan Stuecher

"It's amazing When the moment arrives That you know You'll be alright" - Aerosmith