Once you DECIDE that you are going to be happy, you can turn the next 5 steps and the first one into an acronym from DECIDE to help jump start your journey to happiness.
D Decide to be happy.
E stands for live each and every day as if it were your last.
C is so you can count your blessings.
I equals Inspire Others.
D is so you don’t talk yourself out of being happy.
E encourages you to eliminate emotional toxins, especially resentment.
My good friend, Devin Hastings, has a hypnosis CD for letting go of resentment in which he says, “Resentment is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die.”
The really cool thing about this acronym is that, if you catch yourself slipping on one point, you can use one of the other points to self-correct. For example, let’s say you find yourself talking yourself out of being happy. You just bought a new car and you are starting to tell yourself all the reasons why you should’ve gotten the other model. STOP. Imagine this were your last day on earth. Would you care which are you were driving when you went and did that thing that you really want to do before you die?
Or maybe you start thinking you really don’t have that much in life to be thankful for. Stop. What can you do to make the fourteen-year-old neighbor kid feel better who didn’t make the basketball team?