Happy New Year . . . or maybe not!

"Happy New Year!"  We all say it, yet, so many of us are just not happy.  At least, not for any extended period of time.  But why not?  The answer is simple, but the solution may not be.  Happiness is greatly tied to the activities that fill our lives.  But, unfortunately, so many of us invest so much of our time into things we just don't enjoy.  There are naturally things we have to do that are not what we prefer.  But if the majority of our time is spent on things that don't fulfill us or add meaning to our lives, our happiness will be diminished, or even demised, and we'll live in an internal state of conflict.

Some years ago, shortly after our first child was born, I was forced to take a serious inventory of all of the activities that filled my life.  But what compelled me to take stock?  The new responsibilities of being a mom added to my already-full plate of being a wife, a professional, a budding entrepreneur, a member of "this" organization, an advisor to "that" organization, along with a myriad of other random and ad hoc activities, endeavors, and initiatives that were all for very good cause.  But in reality, in spite of all of these wonderful things, I was just not as happy as I believed I should be.  So, with all the doing and all the going, I began to question whether the activities that filled my life truly mirrored the desires of my heart or were they simply an array of deliciously appetizing delicacies that made their way onto my plate but were not filling me as I needed?  

I soon discovered that my reality was the latter.  And even though it wasn't easy, I began to reorder my life to change my reality, to resolve that conflict within me.  Though many years have passed since then, I regularly check my happiness gauge and constantly assess whether my reality on the outside truly reflects the life I desire on the inside.  And when it doesn't, I go radical! because, for me, my outside has to match my inside.  

But what about you?  What do you do?  How do you resolve those inner conflicts that surface within you?  How do you protect or reclaim the happiness that you so desire and deserve?  You never know how sharing what you do might help someone else who's looking for answers but may not have the courage to ask.  Someone needs to hear you speak!  Will you?