Are you happy?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 2:45PM Research suggests that women today are not as happy as their counterparts were 30 years ago. With all of today's technology and opportunities, why is this so? Also, women's level of happiness tends to decrease as we age. Where is the hope?
When trying to make decisions about my future career at about the age of 17, I remember thinking wouldn't it be easier if I had lived a few decades earlier when my options in life included being a nurse, a teacher, a secretary or a homemaker?
In Marcus Buckingham's new book "Find Your Strongest Life: What the happiest and most successful women do differently", he very eloquently suggests that the funny thing about having a choice is that we have to make one.
I think that's where the source of this unhappiness comes from. Women do not actively choose what their priorities are and work hard enough to live them. We do have all of these different chances and opportunities, but we need to create our own personal focus. Without focus, we try to manage competing priorities, we can feel disjointed, and like life is happening to us rather than being in the driver's seat.
To stay true to our personal focus means saying "no" to items that don't fit our lives, surrounding ourselves with people and routines that support our choices, and taking courageous steps to make our dreams come true. This doesn't have to be a harsh process. Buckingham suggests that we "cradle" our dreams with all of the gentleness and strength as we would a baby in our arms.
With this in mind, I hope that you can invest a little time in yourself to determine what you really want in your life. Then, CHOOSE to live it. Happiness, here we come!
