The starting point for happiness is a decision. Abe Lincoln is quoted as saying, “A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.”<\/p>\n

When I catch myself dwelling on situations in our lives that are stressful \u2014 situations that I can do very little, if anything, about \u2014 my attitude and spirit tend to plummet. That’s not surprising. What is surprising, if not alarming, is that I understand that I am making the choice to dwell on something that is outside of my control. As a result, I’m making the choice to allow my spirit to flag. These are not outside influences. It is internal, In my own mind.<\/p>\n

I know through established research and my own experience that choosing to focus on situations that are within my influence, if not my control, is a path of far more contentment.<\/p>\n

So much of our story, both personal and business, is shaped by the stories we create in our minds. When the stories are stressful, our lives appear to us as spinning out of control. When we focus on situations that are in our influence and take the necessary actions to affect them, I find that we are far more content and happy.<\/p>\n

The decision has been to either allow the loop of fear to run or to stop it and start playing the loop of possibility and hope. Either way, I’m about as happy as I’ve decided I want to be.<\/p>\n

And you?<\/p>\n

Charles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The starting point for happiness is a decision. Abe Lincoln is quoted as saying, “A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.” When I catch myself dwelling on situations in our lives that are stressful \u2014 situations that I can do very little, if anything, about \u2014 my attitude […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,10,18],"tags":[36,82,138],"class_list":{"0":"post-473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-attitude","7":"category-happiness","8":"category-story","9":"tag-attitude","10":"tag-happy","11":"tag-story","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n