81: QUICKIE! The PURSUIT IS HAPPINESS

Foreign. Welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of The Bliss Project, 3 Time Fitness World champion, fitness expert and cover model turned self love junkie, lifestyle entrepreneur and author.

Each week I'll bring you a guest or a thought that will help you.

Bust through your fears, connect to your soul and get focused and clear so you can elevate your life, business and relationships. We don't wait until we're ready for someone to tell us we're good enough. We take what we want and we anoint ourselves. Get ready to earn, own, and unapologetically rock your happiness every single day. Are you with me? Here we go. Welcome back to the earn your happy podcast. And it is time for another quickie, because there's always time to fit in inspiration. So let's open with a Frederick Koenig quote. It says, we tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. So that's beautiful this time of year because we tend to have an expectation around what we want our holidays to be like, what we want them to look like. And a lot of times that is a feeling or people or things that we do not currently have. And we are inundated, right, by Hallmark, by those Folgers commercials where the brother and sister are like best friends in the whole wide world and they can't wait to drink coffee and spend all day together and all week together. When we know what real holidays look like. Am I right? Like what is a real family without a little bit of arguing. But I want to be really, really honest and just say, these obviously are commercials and selling you something for a reason. They're selling you an idea or a false expectation or hope. And it's not that you cannot have that. It's just when you think it's coming in a different form, form that does not look like the form that you're expecting, then we can't actually appreciate what we do have, right? So recognizing and appreciating what we do have is how happiness starts coming into our lives. And when we start pushing happiness away or when we don't have it is typically because we have an expectation that we're holding that is not matching our actual reality. So what could you plan to do this year that could just keep you present and grateful for what you do have? You know, if there's something that you do want at your holiday, maybe you start planning, maybe if you want more connectedness More togetherness, a healthier holiday. The planning starts right now. So if you want more connection, maybe you plan to bring some games, maybe you send that email out right now. Hey, guys, I really want to make sure that we're doing more connecting. We're not just sitting around and eating or watching movies the whole time, whatever that looks like. Send an email out now. See who wants to participate. See if some people want to bring games or what their favorite games are. Say, hey, I'd love to go for a walk after Thanksgiving. Because I always feel like I just want to take a nap. Does anybody want to go for a walk with me? I'd love to make this like a gratitude walk or whatever that looks like. And accepted or rejected does not matter. Just say, hey, this is what I'm doing. I'd love for you to come along. Then maybe we can play games when the group gets home. So start planning for what you do want now and make it realistic. And also don't set the expectations so high that when you get there, if it doesn't match that, you're upset. So start planning, but release all expectations and know that the holiday can become anything that you choose it to be, right? So if it's not matching up and you decide that you are just going to send a little bit of love to everyone in the room and just accept exactly where they're at and where you're at and see how much you can actually just love on them, maybe start a conversation, start seeing how interested you could be in each person in the room, that could really shift the mood or just shift your mood, right? Because a lot of happiness as well is the ability to accept whatever it is that is coming into your space. And from a place of accepting, we can actually move forward. We can start to think of different ways that we could maybe make next year's holiday better, right? But when we're not accepting, when we're like, oh, I can't stand my uncle, oh my gosh, that's the worst joke ever. I've heard this joke a million times. If he says that one more time or how disrespectful like that place is not really going to get us into a loving mood or into a space of happiness now, by all means, if you need to work on your boundaries, if someone is pushing your buttons intentionally over and over and over again, by all means, I really want you to listen to a couple of the last podcasts on boundaries. The one with Amy E. Smith is a great one on boundaries, especially if you know that different things are going to come up. I hope that you go back to that episode with Amy E. Smith. So check that out you guys, because that is all about how to set boundaries in a loving way. And I know a lot of of people can use it this time of year. So one last quote. So we know about the quote, the pursuit of happiness. But I want you guys to flip that and really, really understand that happiness is in the pursuit, happiness is in the growth. Happiness is saying, you know, I have some power, that if I want this holiday season to be different, I can make some different choices. It's not gonna be easy. I'm probably gonna fail on some of I am not going to give up. So that holiday planning starts now, you guys. So choose to be happy. Start planning to be happy. What would even make you happy? We can't get happy if we haven't sat down and said what would actually make me happier. Get that power back, baby. Don't give it away. All right, so you guys, I still have my 14 day hollow burn free challenge that you can sign up for for it literally starts November 28th through December 11th. I have never done anything like this ever. It is a totally free challenge. You can sign up on your phone right now, go to loriharder.comchallenge and make sure you share it with your friends and family. It is 1420 minute workouts that you're going to do every single day. And if you hashtag and you upload a picture of yourself, of your weights, of yourself walking, maybe your tennis shoes, just something that says that you're doing one of the workouts. And the rules are all@loriharder.com challenge I am giving away free prizes just about every single day. And you guys, I am giving away one Bliss project ticket to my sold out event. It is a over a $600 retail value so you guys do not miss it. I will be randomly choosing someone who completes all 14 days for that tick.

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So don't miss it. I can't wait. I want to give you prizes. Let me give you prizes. Let me connect you to the most amazing community and let's move into 2017 with massive momentum. So join now. Share on your pages and it is all about love. I mean, we're going to be doing this together and it's the small things that build habits. We know that we talk about that all the time on this podcast best. So that's why I wanted to make sure it is a consistency challenge. All right, grateful for you guys and until next time, earn your happy and I'll see you on the challenge. Bye, everyone. Thank you guys so much for spending this time with me on the earn your happy podcast. I am so glad that you stopped by. If you could take one second to share this episode with someone you think would love it, that would be absolutely amazing and we would be forever grateful. Also, please leave us a review if you feel so moved by going to itunes and leaving us an honest thought, an honest comment. Tell us what you think, tell us what you want to hear. More of it would really help us out on our journey to helping thousands and thousands of people. Until then, don't forget to earn your happy, happy. Thanks again, guys. Bye. Bye.