By Tina O’Conner

My favorite philosopher, Charles S. Schulz would say “happiness is a warm puppy or a chocolate cookie.”

How would you finish that sentence?

Happiness is a choice.  Whether it’s daily, weekly or monthly, we have the opportunity to choose our level of happiness.  Happiness may be accepting ourselves and others for who they are.

Life is hard sometimes.  Life does not always go the way we hope.  When we manage our feelings and thoughts, we can feel a sense of happiness regardless of our environmental circumstances.  This is a challenge.  It takes a conscious effort to maintain the level of happiness that works for our personality.

The more we try to control life, the more stress we create.  It’s almost like a chess game.  We expend a lot of energy moving all the pieces in the right way and then we have to hope everything falls into place.  What if we let life happen?

I am not suggesting we stop making plans or motivate ourselves to earn a promotion or move forward with our lives; but what if we stopped trying to move all the pieces into just the right place.

What if we accepted ourselves as we are?  What if we approached our personal and professional lives without overthinking and planning?  How much less stress would that mindset create?

On the surface this perspective seems to be contradictory for success.  When we take a closer look we will see that most of life is outside of our control.  We spend quite a bit of time trying to control something that cannot be controlled.

The challenge I have for you is to take one day and without planning or scheduling complete all of your tasks.  Take note of your stress level and how much you accomplished.

Take note of how much time were you able to set aside to breathe and relax.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “for every minute you are angry, you lost sixty seconds of happiness.”  Choose wisely.
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Top photo credit: Author Unknown Happiness starts with you via photopin (license)