Happiness is a Choice

Those days where I happen to wake up at 4 am and get all the things done before 9 am feel so good… 😇

I used to think it was_doing_all the things that made me feel amazing but I realized the secret sauce is actually the sense of spaciousness I get from feeling I have time. The million dollar question is: how can I feel that spaciousness even when I have just a half-hour work block between meetings? Here’s what I’ve figured out:

You can’t actually do all the things on your to-do list. And especially, you can’t do them all today. This is so obvious but I still don’t totally believe it. Part of me is still waiting for that glorious sunny day where I get ALL THE THINGS DONE so I can relax.

Happiness is a choice. If I feel I can’t be happy without being insanely productive then I’ll only be happy on those days when I wake up at 4 am. So I just need to choose to be happy–to prioritize feeling good instead of powering through. This is actually much more productive, because when we’re happy we want to do stuff, instead of distracting ourselves and procrastinating.

This morning I was resisting work because I needed to do boring tax stuff. When I looked at what I did want, it was to write. So I actually did want to work–I just wanted to do work that was more creative. Just realizing that freed up a lot of energy, so I took the next step on the tax stuff and then sat down to write.

So–prioritizing feeling good over hustling, which means figuring out what you want from moment to moment. This enables you to feel inspired and engaged, like a child at play. And the result is that instead of fighting yourself and using willpower to make yourself do things and feeling exhausted, your needs are met–so you have more energy, a better emotional space–and you also get more done. ✨