I’m sharing my Core Values this week. I hope you’re enjoying these posts and that it’s sparking some core value exploration within you.  (If you missed the others start  here.) You won’t be surprised by the next core value of mine…. as a happiness coach I’m sure you’ll expect it. 🙂

Core Values #3…. Happiness. 

I didn’t have to force this core value into place.  It’s really something that has always been ingrained in my DNA.  But not because I’ve always been a ‘happy’ person. I haven’t. When my parents got divorced when I was 8, I wasn’t happy.  I didn’t think I could ever be ‘happy’ again. When my sister died when I was 11, happiness was a concept that I just couldn’t grasp.  I thought it was reserved for other people. People who had a happy childhood and that was definitely not me. 

Happiness became a core value of mine because it was something I had to work for.  It was something I had to fight for and something that eluded me but it was something I valued.  So I worked my ass off to make it a big part of my life. So much so that I now teach people how to fight for their own happiness and how to take it on like it’s their full-time job.  Because guess what? It’s no one else’s job. It’s all on you.

I believe happiness is the meaning of life.  That we all deserve to be happy and that, in a nutshell, it’s what we’re all after.  We want some form of joy, happiness, contentment, inner peace, or bliss. Call it whatever resonates with you but it’s all essentially the same thing.  We all want to feel good. I call that happiness. 

How does happiness show up for me?  It shows up through my positivity, when I focus on solutions over problems and when I am grateful, joyful and have reverence for life.  That’s how happiness shows up – not through ‘being’ happy but through embodying happiness.  It shows up when I’m more positive than negative, when I don’t gossip, when I don’t judge and when I expect the best.  It shows up when I set a powerful intention and when I COMMIT to being my best and happiest self. All good things. And speaking of good, I embody happiness when I FEEL GOOD. So feeling good becomes a huge priority. 

Are you safeguarding your happiness?  Do you know what makes you happy?  Start by creating a happy list.  Write down all the things that bring you joy and light you up inside.  Even that one simple act can spark more joy.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the next core value that has a lot to do with YOU.