It’s early January.

The Holidays are over.

It can feel like we go from the ‘The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year’ to the most challenging time of the year.

A more appropriate lyric, now that it is time to make resolutions & get back to work, could be one of the following…

‘It’s The Most:

…Time Of The Year.’`

It’s not that you are ‘Bah Humbug’…

You want to enjoy it, but it can feel more like “I just want to get through it.”

Although your MIND knows that God’s will for you (according to 1 Th 5:16-18) is to:

“Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances…”

...your HEART can lag behind & this simple command can seem overwhelming.

Sometimes you can put your finger on what’s dragging you down & other times it’s more elusive ~ not really sure what’s keeping things from being ‘Wonderful’.

Maybe one (or more) of the below things are going on in your life:

• The loss of a loved one
  
• A broken relationship
  
• Layoff from work
  
• Trials at home with your marriage and or children
  
• Addiction
  
• Anger
  
• Financial Pressure
  
• Shame
  
• Disappointment
  

We know EVENTUALLY we will be OK…

EVENTUALLY we will get through it…..**(see note below)

What if that ‘eventually’ could become:

• This month
  
• This week
  
• In a few days
  
• Today
  
• Or even right now?
  

Question for you: What is really, really, really, really the root cause that has you less than wonderful?

How open are you to it NOT being about circumstances, or even people?

What if:

Everything that you need to make you happy and joyful, you already posses?!

Consider this quote:

Pain Is Inevitable; Suffering Is Optional ~ Haruki Murakami

You don’t have to agree with the above quote.

But what if you did?

What would be different for you if this statement became one of your deepest convictions?

When I read about Viktor Frankl, I realized, if he can do it, then so can I!

Here is a short explanation written by Dan Wager:

In Man’s Search for Meaning , Dr. Frankl wrote about the psychological impacts of life as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. His mother, father, brother, and pregnant wife were all killed in the camps. Dr. Frankl describes in chilling detail how his captors took from him virtually everything of personal value and basic human dignity. The only thing that the Nazis were unable to take away was his choice as to how to respond to the deprivation, degradation, and trauma to which he was subjected. He made a conscious decision to focus his energies on “owning” that small but all-important space between the stimulus (whatever was said or done to him) and his response to it.

Have you heard the expression, ‘That person pushes my buttons”?

What is a ‘button’?

It is a stimulus.

Someone says or does something to you that you don’t like.

Our response, ‘You pushed my button’!

And then we justify a response that we ‘automatically’ act out as if we were hard wired to only respond in a certain way.

Frankl proved no one or nothing can ‘push your buttons’ (stimulus) and upset you (response) unless you let them!

The only thing that can upset us in life, is our own judgment of something; the story that we attach to what is happening or happened.

Your ‘brains story’ about a situation is what upsets you.

NOT THE SITUATION!

You have the freedom to attach any story you want to what is currently going on in your life!

So, if you can create any story you want out of what is currently going on in your life, why not make up a story that exercises your faith and your imagination?

Am I saying it is easy; HECK NO!

But, is it possible; HECK YEAH!

“Happiness was never produced by anything external to the human being” ~ Rich Litvin

Isn’t that why we love the movie, ‘The Grinch’?

We watch it over and over and over. It reminds us and encourages us that our happiness and our joy, does NOT depend on STUFF or THINGS!!!!

That’s what changed the Grinch’s heart and that is what changes ours as well!

I love being a dad.

I love Christmas morning.

I remember thinking when the kids were little, “How do I optimize the experience of them coming down the stairs in the morning – you know – when they see the tree, and the presents, etc.”

After watching The Grinch and reading our two Christmas books, I had us stand in a circle and I asked the kids a question.

“What if you wake up and there are no presents under the tree? What if when you wake up, nothing is different from the way it is right now?

They looked at me like I was a bit crazy, but with the point of the story (Grinch) still clear in their minds, they swallowed hard, and realized, wow, ‘FAHOO DORES’.

Hence a new Mitchell Family Tradition was born: The singing of the ‘FAHOO DORES’ (from the Grinch) every Christmas Eve right before bed:

Fahoo Fores Dahoo Dores
Welcome Christmas Come this way
Etc...

So now, when the kids wake up, if there are presents under the tree (and there always are), they are the ‘sprinkles on top of the ice cream’, not the ice cream.

1. Convert ‘The Grinch’ inside of you, that thinks that your joy and happiness ‘comes in a box’ or relies on this or that.
   
2. Find GRATITUDE, it is your CHOICE. What are 50 things you are grateful for?
   
3. Stop interpreting your situation as ‘bad’ or terrible.
   
4. Instead of thinking, ‘What’s Wrong’, think ‘What’s Right’!
   
5. Remember, Joy is YOUR CHOICE and no one can take that away from you!
   
6. Ask God to strengthen your ‘Consider’ muscles, as he commands us in James 1:2, “Consider it pure joy brothers and sisters, whenever you go through trials of many kinds…” Remember that he is testing your faith and that what you are currently facing will in fact mature and become complete you!
   
7. Serve those in need. Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.
   

Would love to know your thoughts on this!

Please send me a (click) quick email if this helped you & why…

Joy has been an elusive topic for me & yet I know God commands me to ‘be joyful always’. After many years of study, trials and experiments, I have developed a 12 Step Coaching Program entitled ‘The Joyful Life’. Clients that stick with the program are getting HUGE results. They graduate enlightened, engaged and empowered. I offer complimentary sessions. If you would like to discuss and grow in this area, click here.

Happy & Joyful 2018,

Dave

** NOTE: To those who have lost loved ones and those who struggle with depression, know that I am especially sensitive to your situation and am fully on board in regards to mourning, and when needed, counseling, therapy and professional help.