Lesson Learned: Crap, it really is up to me

When I used to hear people say "Happiness is a Choice" ... I would mumble it back to myself in the snarkiest voice possible, "Mmappinessss niz a choisss, blah!" you know, like a child.  "It's a load of bull to say I can decide if I want to be happy when life gives you some crazy Shiz to deal with and I'm just not going to be happy all the time."  Am I right or am I right???

Yeah, I'm right ... I'm not happy ALL the time.

But what I didn't get was ... I can still be happy. If I choose to be.

"Um, that's exactly what they said ..."

Yeah, it is.  I just didn't understand it.  Now I do.  I still have days when I'm screaming mad.  I still get angry with my kids.  I still get upset when things don't go the way I want them too.  But then I get over it, and I'm happy.  I can even be happy for OTHER people's happiness.  That's sort of the secret.  To get to a place in your life where you can "change the things you don't like, and accept the things you can't change." Then suddenly you aren't mad at everyone else for having what you don't have.  Does that make sense?? It will ... when you are truly happy.

There is no "secret formula" for happiness.  But I can tell you what worked for me.

Before, when I would try to start exercising and get healthy, about a week or two into it I would think to myself "I can NOT do THIS for the rest of my life.  If this is what it takes to be healthy then it isn't worth it."  And I was right, if it would always be as hard as it is right at first, there is no way you could maintain that indefinitely.  What I didn't know was ... it gets easier ... or better said ... you get stronger.  Each new change you make is TOUGH.  And it stays tough until you get stronger.  I wish there would have been someone to tell me not to give up, because the strength to go on was just a few more weeks away.  So I'm going to share it with you:

Don't give up.  The strength to go on is just a few more weeks away.  I promise.

And then, one day when you are strong enough and you suddenly realize you've changed your whole life around ... you'll be happy.  Because you choose to be.

Exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy.  For reals.