I Love Lucy was a great show featuring that adorable red haired wife who brought laughter into all of our homes many years ago. It was one of those old, good natured comedies, that made us laugh and taught us some good lessons about friendship and love. Lucy made us laugh on the screen and also gave us this insightful quote about achieving happiness. It stresses that we have to know what makes us happy to make sure we work to put happiness in our lives. We can be happier in just two simple steps. The first step is to recognize what makes us happy.
1. Identify What Makes You Happy
We have to identify what makes us happy if we want to be happy. We can’t go through life just hoping we are happy. True, there are people out there that seem to be naturally happy, and I believe this to be true. Just like there are people who are naturally gifted at some things that others are not. If you are not one of these naturally happy people, it doesn’t mean you can’t be happy. You just need to work at it and identify what makes you happy.
Take some time to think about when you have been the happiest in your life. Was it when you were with friends or family? How about reading a book or playing a game? Perhaps it was just being outside, enjoying nature with a bike ride. Whatever it is that made you smile, laugh, or be happy, write it down.
2. Take Time For Things That Make You Happy
People often say that we should “Make time to do things.” But we can’t “make time”, we can only “take time.” We have to take time from our busy schedules and schedule in some time for the things that make us happy. Too many times we let our schedules become full with things we “have to” do rather than things we want to do. We let our busy lives consume us and don’t take time for the things that make us happy. When we do this day after day, we get stuck in this busyness groove. And if we stay in a groove for too long, we can get stuck in a rut, and we get burned out. We become overstressed and our happiness suffers.
We can’t put the things that make us happy on the back burner. We HAVE to take time for those things. Schedule things that make you happy in your day. If you enjoy taking bike rides, schedule a time each day or week for a ride. If it makes you happy to hang out with your friends and catch up, then be sure to plan that time with friends and get it on everyone’s schedules. The best way to make sure something happens is to schedule a time for it to happen. If we don’t schedule a time, then we keep telling ourselves we will get to it, but what we end up doing is keep putting it off. Take the time today and schedule the things that make you happy.
Final Thoughts
As Lucy said, it is a great start to recognize what makes you happy. And to be happy, you have to be purposeful about it. You have to take time to identify what makes you happy and schedule those types of things in your life. When we plan a time to do things, we tend to get them done, so scheduling the time to do these things is just as important as identifying the things that make you happy. If you don’t take the time to do the things that make you happy, you could easily get stuck in a rut of work, sleep, work, and sleep. If you are in that rut today, break out by identifying what makes you happy and schedule at least one thing a day that makes you happy.
For me, I really enjoy a good cup of coffee and reading self-improvement books. It makes me happy to sit back, prop up my feet, sip on some tasty coffee, and learn something new. I schedule 30 minutes into my day, 5 days a week, just to sip on coffee and read. It makes me happy and gives my day some joy.
I strongly suggest you find what makes you happy and put it in your schedule today!!!