by Amanda van der Gulik
Are you happy?
Are you truly happy with your life right now? If you are then you are among the few who truly are and I am sincerely happy for you. You are on the right path. All your dreams will probably come true for you.
If not, maybe you are basically happy but there are a few things you still wish to change?
That's the majority of us.
And then there are those who are tremendously unhappy and all I can do is let you know that there is a way to be happy and unfortunately, as simple and uncompassionate as it sounds, it's really up to yourself to be happy.
Sounds rather harsh doesn't it?
I know, I've been tremendously unhappy often in my life but luckily I've been supremely happy the majority of the time. That doesn't mean that everything has gone my way...trust me I've had some pretty incredibly seemingly insurmountable obstacles in my life!
Try being 'different' from the rest of the world for all your life and you'll know what I mean by that.
But the point I want to make here is that although I had bad things happen in my life: a fire that wiped us out completely, con-artists who stole everything (including my sweet children's baby photos), being taken out of school and sent to another just because my parents didn't like who I was dating (who I am now living my life with, by the way) and many many other obstacles that found my life's path, I decided from a very young age that no matter what happened to me in my life, I was going to be happy!
Simple as that.
Oh and you should have heard the amount of times that I heard others talking about me, "she's a fake, she can't possibly be that happy". Well, I am. Yes, life sucks sometimes for sure. But it's not what happens to you that matters in life its how you react to it that matters and will ultimately determine whether you will be happy or not.
If you allow the bad to bring you down to the whoa is me, then you will be unhappy. And I'm not saying that you can never have those moments. We need them every so often, the important thing is to be able to realize what you are doing and then give yourself a kick in the bum and get out of that mode. Move on. Move above the situation and choose to be happy just to be alive!
Would you like to know the real secret to success in life?
Well listen closely cause here it is:
ASK HOW?
Yup that's it! Ask 'how?'
You see we are hard-wired with this incredible brain that when presented with a question will do all in its power to find an answer, a solution.
So by asking 'how' you are starting the ball to your answer rolling.
Now I'm not saying to use it like this:
"How come this horrible thing happened to me?" That's actually a 'why' question and can be easily replaced with, "Why is this horrible thing happening to me?" That will not help you to get back to happy. That will only help you to simmer in the horrible situation and the whoa is me will engulf you.
No I'm talking about using 'how' in your favour, take control of it, make it work for you.
How?
Like this:
"Okay, so this horrible thing has happened to me, HOW can I get out of it? HOW can things get better?"
What you are actually doing is asking your brain to come up with a solution to help you get out of the present bad situation. Your brain will start rolling its wheels trying to come up with a solution.
I use this for myself all the time to help me find the solutions to my problems. I actually quite often use it just before going to sleep at night and will wake up with a dream that had the answer to my problem. It's really cool! :D
I also use it in my parenting and in my teachings. As most of you know I'm passionate about teaching kids and teens about money (and their parents too for that matter). I love giving them the tools to become masters of their money, to turn their passions and talents into passive income to support them financially for life.
Here's an example for you that you can tweak to use for whatever situation you would like to achieve for yourself or your child:
You are in a store with your child and he turns to you and says, "Mommy, can I have that toy?"
You don't have any extra money, you're living paycheque to paycheque, so your natural instinct is to respond with, "No! What do you think I'm made of money?"
What if instead of giving your child the scarcity mindset of 'lack of money' and gave them a 'how' question instead, encouraging creativity and an abundance mentality?
Like this:
"Sure sweetie, you can have that toy. Mommy doesn't have the money to buy it for you but HOW can you buy that toy? HOW many ways can you think of to earn money so you can buy it for yourself?"
Now you've let your child know that you won't be buying it for them but given them a seed of creativity to see what ways they can think up that will help them achieve their goal. You may have to help them get started the first few times but after a while they will become used to the idea that they need to find their own solutions.
It may be as simple as asking the neighbour if they can do some gardening work in exchange for some cash to help them earn the money. Or maybe setting up a lemonade stand at a local garage sale. There are infinite ways to earn the money, the point is to get them asking their minds so they can start finding their own solutions.
Now here's a question for you:
HOW can you make your life more happy?
HOW can you be happy?
Here's a video that I put together for you to show you how to use 'how' with regards to how to get your child excited to learn about money. I show you a few more 'how' tricks in this video that you can use for any goal, not just teaching children about money. I know you will find it helpful for sure:
Here's to having fun with your child learning HOW to make your brain work for you so you can be fully happy in your own lives by finding your own solutions! :D
Cheers...Amanda...Excited Life Enthusiast! ;o)
Best-selling author, Amanda van der Gulik homeschooled her own two children for over 12 years. As founder of www.TeachingChildrenAboutMoney.com, Amanda is constantly being interviewed for parenting shows, like Radio Disney, on TV, radio, in newspapers, magazines and blogs all over the world. Visit Amanda’s site today to grab your FREE copy of her eBook, “Goal-Setting for Families", her "Mindmovies for Kids and Teens” or her “The 6 Magical Piggy Banks” cartoon to help give your child some great ideas of how they can earn their own money!
Are you happy?
Are you truly happy with your life right now? If you are then you are among the few who truly are and I am sincerely happy for you. You are on the right path. All your dreams will probably come true for you.
If not, maybe you are basically happy but there are a few things you still wish to change?
That's the majority of us.
And then there are those who are tremendously unhappy and all I can do is let you know that there is a way to be happy and unfortunately, as simple and uncompassionate as it sounds, it's really up to yourself to be happy.
Sounds rather harsh doesn't it?
I know, I've been tremendously unhappy often in my life but luckily I've been supremely happy the majority of the time. That doesn't mean that everything has gone my way...trust me I've had some pretty incredibly seemingly insurmountable obstacles in my life!
Try being 'different' from the rest of the world for all your life and you'll know what I mean by that.
But the point I want to make here is that although I had bad things happen in my life: a fire that wiped us out completely, con-artists who stole everything (including my sweet children's baby photos), being taken out of school and sent to another just because my parents didn't like who I was dating (who I am now living my life with, by the way) and many many other obstacles that found my life's path, I decided from a very young age that no matter what happened to me in my life, I was going to be happy!
Simple as that.
Oh and you should have heard the amount of times that I heard others talking about me, "she's a fake, she can't possibly be that happy". Well, I am. Yes, life sucks sometimes for sure. But it's not what happens to you that matters in life its how you react to it that matters and will ultimately determine whether you will be happy or not.
If you allow the bad to bring you down to the whoa is me, then you will be unhappy. And I'm not saying that you can never have those moments. We need them every so often, the important thing is to be able to realize what you are doing and then give yourself a kick in the bum and get out of that mode. Move on. Move above the situation and choose to be happy just to be alive!
Would you like to know the real secret to success in life?
Well listen closely cause here it is:
ASK HOW?
Yup that's it! Ask 'how?'
You see we are hard-wired with this incredible brain that when presented with a question will do all in its power to find an answer, a solution.
So by asking 'how' you are starting the ball to your answer rolling.
Now I'm not saying to use it like this:
"How come this horrible thing happened to me?" That's actually a 'why' question and can be easily replaced with, "Why is this horrible thing happening to me?" That will not help you to get back to happy. That will only help you to simmer in the horrible situation and the whoa is me will engulf you.
No I'm talking about using 'how' in your favour, take control of it, make it work for you.
How?
Like this:
"Okay, so this horrible thing has happened to me, HOW can I get out of it? HOW can things get better?"
What you are actually doing is asking your brain to come up with a solution to help you get out of the present bad situation. Your brain will start rolling its wheels trying to come up with a solution.
I use this for myself all the time to help me find the solutions to my problems. I actually quite often use it just before going to sleep at night and will wake up with a dream that had the answer to my problem. It's really cool! :D
I also use it in my parenting and in my teachings. As most of you know I'm passionate about teaching kids and teens about money (and their parents too for that matter). I love giving them the tools to become masters of their money, to turn their passions and talents into passive income to support them financially for life.
Here's an example for you that you can tweak to use for whatever situation you would like to achieve for yourself or your child:
You are in a store with your child and he turns to you and says, "Mommy, can I have that toy?"
You don't have any extra money, you're living paycheque to paycheque, so your natural instinct is to respond with, "No! What do you think I'm made of money?"
What if instead of giving your child the scarcity mindset of 'lack of money' and gave them a 'how' question instead, encouraging creativity and an abundance mentality?
Like this:
"Sure sweetie, you can have that toy. Mommy doesn't have the money to buy it for you but HOW can you buy that toy? HOW many ways can you think of to earn money so you can buy it for yourself?"
Now you've let your child know that you won't be buying it for them but given them a seed of creativity to see what ways they can think up that will help them achieve their goal. You may have to help them get started the first few times but after a while they will become used to the idea that they need to find their own solutions.
It may be as simple as asking the neighbour if they can do some gardening work in exchange for some cash to help them earn the money. Or maybe setting up a lemonade stand at a local garage sale. There are infinite ways to earn the money, the point is to get them asking their minds so they can start finding their own solutions.
Now here's a question for you:
HOW can you make your life more happy?
HOW can you be happy?
Here's a video that I put together for you to show you how to use 'how' with regards to how to get your child excited to learn about money. I show you a few more 'how' tricks in this video that you can use for any goal, not just teaching children about money. I know you will find it helpful for sure:
Here's to having fun with your child learning HOW to make your brain work for you so you can be fully happy in your own lives by finding your own solutions! :D
Best-selling author, Amanda van der Gulik homeschooled her own two children for over 12 years. As founder of www.TeachingChildrenAboutMoney.com, Amanda is constantly being interviewed for parenting shows, like Radio Disney, on TV, radio, in newspapers, magazines and blogs all over the world. Visit Amanda’s site today to grab your FREE copy of her eBook, “Goal-Setting for Families", her "Mindmovies for Kids and Teens” or her “The 6 Magical Piggy Banks” cartoon to help give your child some great ideas of how they can earn their own money!
