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Happiness isn’t Just a Choice…

December 4, 2014 by Joi Leave a Comment

Never Pass Up a Chance to Smile

I don’t follow celebrity news, gossip, or blogs. Quite frankly, I don’t identify with most so-called celebs these days.  The selfishness – more like self-obsession, the substance abuse, and the total lack of anything remotely resembling decency has left me with the motto of, “I’m better off without any of that in my life.”

As I was about to say that I wasn’t going to get on my soap box, I stubbed my toe on said soap box, so I won’t even lie to you.  I’m going there – but I’ll only be there a minute.

My youngest daughter (who’s becoming as fed up with the “stars” of the day as I am) recently told me that during the recent ridiculous, destructive, and senseless rioting that took place in our country, a particular reality tv star uploaded selfie after selfie after selfie of herself at a swanky event.  While so much insanity was going on – with so many people hurting and scared – the only thing that mattered to this person was showing off. It’s thing that mattered to her WAS her.

Some people just want to watch the world burn – as long as they can take pictures of themselves against the flames. I can hear them now… “What excellent lighting!”

In our world – as well as in our own country – there are adults and children who go to bed hungry. There are animals who are going extinct right before our eyes. Have you seen the sickening statistics about the number of girls and women being abused today by their boyfriends and husbands? How can there be so many abusive jackasses in the world?!

After reading the article, I said a little prayer to God that my daughters are all “safe.”  The only thing the boys in their lives abuse are hamburgers, bacon, and video game zombies. The only time they raise their hands to anyone is for a high five if their sport’s team won or they defeated an awesome number of zombies.

Sigh, I love those boys.

With all the bad going on in the world, I simply don’t care to read about any reality star’s shallow life and I certainly don’t want to see any of their gazillion and one selfies!

Seriously. How can you think, “Wow, I look good today… I’d better let everyone else see this..”?

Then there are the clowns who waste millions of dollars, money that could do SO MUCH good in the world, on drugs and alcohol.

Like I said, I’m better off without any of that in my life.

I’m not here, however, to hate on anyone (though I do hate 99 percent of the things these people do). I’m not even here to make fun of them. If I wanted to attack anyone, I’d name names.

It might surprise you, but I’m actually here to applaud something one of these loosely termed “celebs” said recently.  Again, with information courtesy of my 5’2″ source, one particular reality star recently came under fire for finding a particular joke funny.  It was a stupid joke, mind you, but it amused her for whatever reasons and, if you ask me, that’s kind of her business.

Mind you, her haters didn’t rail on her for her for a joke she’d made… just for finding one funny.

She was called everything under the sun and hate arrows of hate slung at her left and right.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how she’d respond.  I kept one eye on her response as I went about my cat, chocolate, and Chai Tea Latte filled life. Then it came. Her answer… her response…. her (in my opinion) statement of victory.

She simply said, “I choose happiness.”

With these three words, she could have been letting the world know that her haters weren’t going to rob her of the one thing they wanted most… her happiness.  She also could have been looking out at the hateful, angry, venom-spewing crowd and telling them that she had something they obviously didn’t… happiness.

I like to think she was doing both, but, then again, I’m an optimist.

Each day we have a million and one opportunities to either be miserable or to smile.

Next time you find yourselves sitting in front of one of these opportunities, tell it, “You are SO not worth frown lines!”

Then smile.

Always, always, always choose happiness,
~ Joi

Filed Under: How to Be Happy Tagged With: choose happiness, happiness, quote graphic

Learning from Our Mistakes: Turning a Very Old Adage on its Very Old Head

October 15, 2014 by Joi 4 Comments

Norman Vincent Peale Quote About Learning from Mistakes
 

My name is Joi (“Joy”) and I have a confession to make.  I’m a baseball addict.  There’s nothing about the game I don’t love. The sights, the sounds, the everything. Between the months of April and October, it’s on the tip of my mind and tongue 24/7.

The other 5 long months? Withdrawal.

Love. The.Game. But, I have to confess, I’m not too fond of losing. When my team (the St. Louis Cardinals) loses, I feel it right into the next day.  If it’s the post season, I might even feel it for weeks.

But, even then… it’s still baseball!

Our young  manager has made a few “head scratching” mistakes this season. And last season, but who’s counting?

He’s a first-class, first-rate, top-0f-the-shelf type of human being.  The players love him, everyone in the organization loves him, opposing coaches love him… heck, I suspect even the umps love him.

Great guy. Doesn’t even cuss. But, that’s a misleading stat, given the fact that he has made some bullpen decisions that make everyone else cuss enough for him AND them. So, in a roundabout way…. he turns the air blue, just not with his own mouth.

Anyway, the good man made a bad decision in last night’s game. Well,actually about 7, but – again – who’s counting?  After head-scratcher #4, I thought, “This guy doesn’t seem to learn from his mistakes.. instead he seems to take some sort of comfort in them.”

No doubt that’s pushing it – I’m not terribly reasonable when I’m in the midst of a baseball game frenzy.

It made me think about an old adage, “We learn from our mistakes.”

I’m just not so sure that old adage holds a lot of water. Could it be that it’s just a comforting thought that tends to take the sting out of mistakes?

Ironically, when I came to Self Help Daily to add a quote to the page of Norman Vincent Peale quotes, one of the quotes jumped out at me. I loved it so much I actually turned it into the graphic you see at the top. “We’ve all heard that we have to learn from our mistakes, but I think it’s more important to learn from successes. If you learn only from your mistakes, you are inclined to learn only errors.”

Sort of calls the old adage out on the floor and asks it, “What have you got to say to that?!”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m reasonable enough to know that we CAN learn from mistakes.  However, I’m also reasonable enough to know that…

  1. That’s not always the case.
  2. It’s better to slow down, think things out, and not make mistakes in the first place.

That second one brings me right back to the ballgame. If – prior to the mistake (pick one), our manager had simply slowed his world down for a minute and thought things through – I would be a much happier gal today.

Sometimes that’s all any of us have to do. Take a deep breathe. Gather our thoughts around and take a good, close look at them. Remove emotions from the equation and go with what we know is the decision that carries with it the largest probability of a successful outcome.

The alternative is go just go with a particular knee-jerk reaction because….

  • … it’s what I’ve always done.
  • … thinking kind of hurts.
  • …. my heart’s telling me to.

Here’s a fact that’ll never NOT be a fact – our brain is located in our head, not our heart.

If I’m sounding preach-y, I don’t mean to. If I sound like someone who always centers her thoughts and never lets her heart have a vote…. hahaha, sorry, I couldn’t get through that one without laughing. I am THE WORST at thinking things through and THE BEST at jerking reactions out of my knees based upon my heart’s word.

Preachy? No. Just intrigued. Intrigued by Norman Vincent Peale’s words and intrigued by the concept of simply slowing down and engaging all brain cells, memories, and… yes, in the proper pecking order… emotions. The concept of slowing our world down long enough to THINK before we speak or act.

It just might be the secret to winning – games and life.

Please share your thoughts in the comments!
~ Joi

Also See: More Norman Vincent Peale quotes!

Filed Under: Positive Thought, Problem Solving Tagged With: Daily Quote, inspirational quote, learning from mistakes, Norman Vincent Peale, quote graphic

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My name is Joi (“Joy”)! I am the over-caffeinated, annoyingly positive, animal lover behind Self Help Daily.

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