Be happy an excerpt from The Incredible You

I love Mary J. Blige’s song “Be Happy.” It is truly all that I believe that you want. Wouldn’t it be great to find the life that is yours? Even when I think of Bobby Darrin and his hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” I have to smile. The time for drama, depression, desperation and drought is over! The time has come for passion, abundance, confidence and expectation. It’s time to be happy.
Happiness is a state of mind but it is so essential to the Incredible You. I think so many people have it wrong; they think that things make them happy. What I know to be true is that being happy is not an end result of getting lots of things. Being happy is the place to start if you want to become the Incredible You. Think about it - when you feel good everything seems to go your way. You may call it being lucky or having a good day. I call it being happy and ultimately fulfilled. When in actuality, the way you feel is the reason for the success you are enjoying at that moment; your mind has allowed you to experience a feeling of euphoria.
It may take you a minute to realize that the success you feel is as a result of your state of mind. But once you do, you will want to strive to always be in your happy place. Happiness, when mastered, will prevent days when you are unhappy. Your outlook on life will be different and you will be able to consistently see the joy in every situation.
When I learned to be happy, so many things in my life changed. You’ve heard the old adage “When life gives you lemons make lemonade?” Well, I took that phrase to heart and started to find a way to make lemonade out of every situation in my life. We choose to allow ourselves to be victims or victors and happiness is a choice. Becoming the Incredible You is a choice. Clearly it is your goal or you would not be reading this book – smile.
Life is full of choices and choosing to be happy is a very good one. Not only do life and death lie in the power of the tongue, but they also lie in the power of the mind. When you choose to be happy, you are choosing a lifetime of happiness and fulfillment that is out of this world.
Want to turn a sad day into a happy one? Pay attention to your thoughts. Like the Bible says, “As a man thinks, so is he.” So if you want to be happy, you must think happiness. I believe that so many of us have an invalid definition of happiness so to be sure, I would like to define it for you.
According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, happiness is having, showing or causing a feeling of great pleasure, contentment or joy; favored by circumstance. I want you to get excited because happiness means that you are favored. As discussed in an earlier principle, expecting unmerited favor in your life is an important part of the Incredible You. I encourage you to expect unmerited happiness and allow the way that you look at the world to shadow all of the experiences that you have while you are here.
Take it from me; I have been a person with a bad attitude. There is nothing enlightened about having a negative outlook on life. In fact, I remember always being miserable and always blaming someone else for my struggles when truly the culprit was me.
I decided to change my destiny by changing my mindset; I decided to be happy. Simply put, I started to look for the “silver lining” in all situations and before I knew it, my glass was half-full and I was optimistic as opposed to the pessimist that I use to be. Every time I noticed myself in a good mood, I captured that moment and stored it in my heart. After a while, I had a bank of good thoughts and feelings to go back to and draw from when I was not having a pleasant experience.
Realize you are in charge of your well being and control it with your thoughts and emotions. So be happy first. Go for it. You deserve the best!
Bottom line: You must believe in the power to be happy. There is nothing more powerful in this life than the power of belief. When you can believe that anything is possible, the Incredible You will be front and center. I love the story of the bumblebee, who according to aerodynamic principles should not be able to fly. But the bumblebee believed in his heart that in order to serve his life function, he was going to have to get around and he did it; he flied away breaking a significant belief barrier.
As a child, I believed that I was supposed to be more than what I was experiencing. That belief in my heart, although it laid dormant for years, was always there inspiring me to be better, stronger and wiser. I believe that nothing happens by mistake and so I had to experience a life of non-belief so that when I started to believe, the power of my own belief and faith would be magnified for me and others. When I started to believe in myself and believe that my dreams were possible and not just figments of my imagination, my life really started. I got a new attitude and in so doing put myself in a position to influence my future. I have consistently said that life is 95% attitude and we get to make a choice every day about how we want that day to go. I decide everyday to live with a full glass and an outlook on life that tells me that I can do anything because I believe that I can. I choose to be happy.
Belief is the most passionate gift in life; it is an illustration in our ability to trust. When what we believe is true and what we believe is possible, it will become a truth and possibility for us. I encourage you again to be happy, the Incredible You deserves it!