Let me give you the bad news first. Your brain is not wired for happiness. Ready for the good news? Your brain is wired for survival.
But wait Dr. Bill, I am happy and I see happy people all the time. Nonsense I say. What you are seeing and doing yourself is people “Doing HAPPY”. We aren’t happy, sad, mad, glad, but rather WE DO happy, mad, glad, sad. They are patterns we execute and we can consciously decide to do these patterns.
No one has the power to make you happy. You decide to do happy. You can say I will be happy when – you fill in the blank here – but what I will tell you is “when might never come” so why not DECIDE to do happy right now. That’s right why achieve to be happy when you could be happily achieving.
The point has been made throughout history. I am sure that you have heard “people are as happy as they make their minds up to be”. Well the converse is true too. If you wake up and start focusing on your problems and troubles (we coaches call them challenges and opportunities) you may say something like “today is going to be another crappy day”. And guess what? It will be because you already decided what it will be. Your brain will do its best to make that a reality, because your brain always wants to be right. It’s wired for survival. In the brain’s mind(ha) being right is surviving. So then I ask “do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?”
Me as a cowboy. At least today I have nicer boots.
