Greetings All –

We’re halfway through the summer and so it’s time to take stock. What did you promise yourself you’d get to this summer that you haven’t yet? A household project? A day trip to an amusement park or beach? A fabulous novel? Too busy shuttling the kids around to camps and ballgames? Stop the madness for just one day — hire a sitter and go park yourself in a chair at Barnes and Noble.

Of course, if there are some serious goals you want to tackle before fall hits, contact me for a life coaching consultation and I’ll help put you in action. In the meantime, scroll down for this month’s message.


HAPPY DAYS

My sister and I were talking about a mutual acquaintance who recently expressed a desire to go see a psychic. “What do you think she wants to hear?” my sister asked. “What would make her happy?”

We both knew the latter question was much broader in scope than the psychic situation. This was a person who didn’t seem to know how to be happy. Indeed, what could a psychic say that would enliven or jazz her?

Of course the real core of the issue lies with the word “make” in that latter question. What “makes” us happy is not the external but the internal. Hearing a fortuneteller’s prediction that there is money coming from a magical place, that the next great love of our lives is around the corner, that we will be discovered by a talent agent within the year will only bring us fleeting joy. If we have not gone within and done the emotional and spiritual work necessary to turn that blip into something more lasting and real, there’s really no point. It becomes a Band-Aid.

As a life coach, there is nothing more disheartening to hear from a potential client than the signs of deep-seated unhappiness. I would rather try to help the person with the awful voice reach his lofty goal of singing on Broadway than try to convince a perpetually unhappy person she can safely walk across the street when the light turns green. If a person believes getting the promotion, the hot new lover or a thinner body will make her happy, ultimately we’re in trouble before we even begin. The coaching is just another big, fat Band-Aid.

It’s like Marianne Williamson says in A Return To Love: “Usually we figure out what we think would make us happy, and then try to make those things happen. But happiness isn’t circumstance-dependent. There are people who have every reason in the world to be happy who aren’t. There are people with genuine problems who are. The key to happiness is the decision to be happy.”

It may be the most important decision of your life.