SAY YES TO SUCCESS AND NO TO RESOLUTIONS!
- Written by Eric North aka “The Happiness Warrior”
I think successful people have an innate sense of readiness and purpose that’s ready to be tapped as soon as they sense a great opportunity.
For most of us, each new year begins with promises and resolutions that we make to ourselves. Resolutions and vows that we know we don’t have to hold ourselves accountable to because it’s just what everyone does on New Year’s Eve?
While life-affirming in spirit, our resolutions often mirror how we want others to perceive and see us and are egocentric in nature. We make meaningless and inflated statements that are soon forgotten without any conscious thought that soon disappear into the background only to be revived and expounded upon in the next new year. Most of the time these resolutions are heart-felt, but too often made without factoring in the belief in oneself and the self-discipline needed to create a new beginning. Without even realizing it we’ve set ourselves up for another year of missing out on opportunities, failure, lack of momentum, and poor decision-making.
CREATE A DISCIPLINED MINDSET
We are all capable of doing great things with our lives, but it will never happen unless we change the way we think about ourselves and create the disciplined mindset needed to attain success. Fear of failure is a barrier we can only breach when our intention is set on moving forward with our lives and taking control of our destiny. When we do this, we can realize how much we benefit when we take personal responsibility and create an environment where we can be proud of our actions and capabilities. In my mind, the person that I want to make most proud of myself is me. I know that I will suffer emotionally and perhaps physically as well when I don’t keep my vows to myself and stay on my path. This sense of personal accountability also allows me to forgive myself and pick myself up when I do something wrong or make an unfortunate emotional and reactionary decision.
How do we clear our head of self-defeating behaviors in the chaotic feeling world that we live in where everything we once knew has been forgotten? We do this because we give in and stop believing in ourselves. We forget that our words have spirit and throw away our dreams when they lose their intention. Think of how much patience it takes to politely listen to someone tell us that “this year’s going to be epic!” without a thought or clue as to what that means?
As The Happiness Warrior I want to show you how to discard the self-created emotional baggage and behaviors that cause us harm and create a new thought process. This helps to continually propel us forward with a mindset focused on success, purpose, and happiness. We don’t need resolutions when we find our purpose and live in that reality in the present!
CREATING NEW ROUTINES
Life does not have to be an endless cycle of the same tired routines when we can create simple systems to thrive and create happier lives. Creating new routines helps provide us structure and discipline to live the lives that we’ve only fantasized about.
Often the only barriers to taking positive action in our lives are the ones we’ve created for ourselves. Success is easy when we believe in our true desires and develop a system of self-discipline that continually helps us to adapt and reinvent and renew ourselves.
MAKE EACH DAY THE BEST DAY EVER
If we really want to change our lives, we need to forget about resolutions and boastful empty promises and change our focus on our internal selves. Change comes from when we know and trust our authenticity and understand our powers. When we strip away our egos, we also remove defensiveness and anger. Self-aware process is the process of getting to the core of who we really are and living in our true reality. This is manifested when we create healthy and life-affirming daily routines upon waking and every night before sleep.
Tell yourself that “it’s going to be a great day” when you first awaken and tell yourself “That you did your best today and will do better tomorrow” just before closing your eyes. I give these more power with an easy breathing routine to help me sleep and manifest my affirmations. This helps provide a framework for a life with more opportunity, better choices, and happier outcomes. This also raises vibration and helps us live in the present with focused intention and greater happiness.
Over the last few years of political turmoil, illness, and death I’ve aligned my actions with a mindset for doing my best at everything I do. External events and ego take less importance in my life when I’m concentrating and focusing on my own actions! By consciously doing my best even in the simplest tasks such as making dinner or exercising, I’m focused on personal success and well-being. Providing value in my actions is one of my five Happiness Warrior Core Values that I strive to live by.
MAINTAIN A READY FOR ANYTHING MINDSET
Success is about developing patience and stamina needed to commit to plan and the flexibility to adapt and alter the path as needed. Life can give us a lot of roadblocks but committing to a plan and mentally “steering” yourself towards our goals will always win in the end.
FORGIVE YOURSELF FOR PAST MISTAKES AND FAILURES
It’s important to take at least one day each year and look back at our mistakes, hurts, and failures. Letting go of guilt and finding meaning is the beginning of forgiving ourselves. Remove ugly feelings such as guilt and shame and concentrate on being better and not making the same mistakes again. Be wary of judging others as it usually leads back to our own faults and bad behaviors. I prefer my birthday over New Year’s Day. It's much more powerful and meaningful to practice atonement and self-awareness when it’s “your” day.
SET GOALS AND INTENTIONS
We make happiness and success our reality when we live our dream life now in the present and make it happen. Realistic goals are achieved and often surpassed when we:
1. Verbalize and write down specific goals and define our mission.
2. Set short-term steps and milestones to reach our goals.
3. Make our intentions as specific as possible and visualize fully.
4. Measure action and progress in writing and say them out loud.
5. Schedule time to work on goals. Once I began writing my weekly column, I modified my schedule to include one hour of writing every morning at the same hour. I only write and do research during this time, no emails, or distractions.
6. Believe in our intentions and live in our new reality.
HAVE AND MAINTAIN A SET OF PERSONAL CORE VALUES
Mastering ourselves is almost the same as building a foundation. Personal strength and defining our path help us to develop the core or foundation of who we are going forward from this moment on. Creating a set of personal core values is the only way to make this happen. Without a strong carefully aligned set of core values we will never be the greatest and most authentic versions of ourselves. Many people are successful, but they never reach their full potential until they are honest with themselves and self-aware of who they are and how they’re perceived.
Our values are important because they help us to grow and develop. They help us to create a way to live in the present and focus on our intentions. Core values are necessary to help us create the future that we desire and align our actions with our spirit and truths. The decisions we make reflect our core values and beliefs, and they are always directed towards a specific purpose. Core values:
1. Help define our purpose
2. Show us a clear path for reacting mindfully to situations
3. Consistently align our decision making and choices.
4. Help us eliminate unnecessary parts and people in our life that hold us down and impede growth.
5. Help us determine the right career path and define our purpose.
6. Help us be more self-aware and authentic.
7. Raise self-esteem, self-confidence, enhance leadership qualities, and perception from others.
8. Help make us happier in general.
9. Raise our vibration and attract good energy.
NEVER FORGET TO REMIND YOURSELF THAT YOU’RE AWESOME
No matter what comes our way this coming year we all have a choice to make it an adventure or make it a misery. Life will always happen, and obstacles will get in our way, but a mindset with solid foundation for success will always guide us through life. If we can be a better version of ourselves every day, we’ll never feel the need to make another resolution. Being our best selves it the way forward with clarity, self-confidence, and a continuously expanding sense of self-awareness.
Life is a gift. Think about who you can be and all the interesting things that you’re going to learn in the year ahead!