6 Choices to Make for Happiness

“Since there is no escape from the now,
Why not welcome it, become friendly with it?”
Eckhart Tolle

Western consumer driven economic rationalist world urges us to live for the outcome, to never be happy with what we have right now and to always be seeking to have more. But what if we – as Eckhart Tolle says – make peace with the now, become friendly with it?

I don’t believe there is a silver bullet magical solution to long term happiness. Sure we can all have, from time to time, ‘Road to Damascus’ type revelations which shift our consciousness – but mostly long term happiness is something that we all need to work at. Just as Aristotle sees excellence as a habit so too I believe is the achievement of long term happiness.

“Excellence is not an act, but a habit”
Aristotle

There are 6 choices I believe we need to make on a daily basis – 6 choices that need to become a habit in order to achieve long term happiness.

#1 CHOOSE YOUR INTENTION
You are in control, you can take responsibility therefore every morning choose your intention. Ask “How do I want to BE today?”

#2 CHOOSE WHERE TO PUT YOUR ENERGY
We all live in three worlds – the past, the present and the future. The past is a talk fest and so is the future. The only place where you have an opportunity to influence the world is right here right now in the present. So CHOOSE to be present.

#3 CHOOSE YOUR FOCUS
Neuroscience says that whatever you focus on strengthens the neural networks in the brain so focus on the bad and yep you strengthen the networks around the bad story. So, at the end of every day ask “What did I do RIGHT today?” – it might be hard at first but trust me you’ll get the hang of it.

#4 CHOOSE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
You know how as you were growing up you were probably told by a parent or relative “You have to be your own best friend” and probably at the time you thought it was so corny and cheesy that you just dismissed it well…  Yep – CHOOSE to love yourself unconditionally no matter what you do or how badly you failed, lost, embarrassed yourself or whatever – CHOOSE to love yourself without condition. You can do this in the morning right after you’ve set your intention for the day – something like “No matter what happens today I CHOOSE to love myself unconditionally”.

#5 CHOOSE TO HAVE FAITH
Yep – no one’s going to prove it to you and you’re not going to know for sure until after you die so why bother? Well – lack of faith that there is some deeper sense of meaning in the world means you’re stuck with worrying that you’re not going to get what you want. Which means that you’re stuck trying really hard to work everything out so you do get what you want. Which traps you in a tautological spiral of stress. So – let it go – CHOOSE to have faith. CHOOSE to surrender to outcome to spirit, creator, the Universe, God – whatever works for you – just CHOOSE – then you can be truly present to what’s going on right now. This is going to come straight after the unconditional love choice in the morning – “I CHOOSE to surrender the outcome of today’s events to insert here – spirit/God/creator etc. I CHOOSE to release all worry.”

#6 CHOOSE GRATITUDE
Yep another cheesy one but hey what’s the point in moaning? Who are you moaning to anyway? And what sort of neural networks do you think you’re strengthening by doing that? So – CHOOSE to be grateful. This is an end of the day one and the final finish before sleep time. After you’ve done the focus on what you did right then ask “What am I grateful for and why?”

That’s it – 6 simple daily choices that will accumulate over time and deliver long lasting happiness to you.

It’s never too late to begin today :)