Are you your own worst critic?

I was reminded by this 2 minute video of my own habit of undervaluing myself and my contributions. It’s a human thing — we all do it. Let this be a reminder that you — yes, YOU — have brilliance in you!

Obvious to you. Amazing to others. from Derek Sivers on Vimeo.

We Gotta Make Our Own Happiness

I got up this morning feeling very unsettled. My week has been busy. I was a bit short on sleep and when my alarm went off all I could feel was bone-tiredness. So I turned off my alarm and skipped my workout (this is a big deal for me — I live in the assessment that I MUST exercise six days a week…).

Even with the catchup sleep, however, I still felt ‘on edge’ once I got up and functioning. I went in to my office to start work, and could not focus or sit still. I kept wandering around inside and outside the house, and eventually found myself out on my deck.

It took a while for me to realize that I’d been standing there — just standing in place — for a couple of minutes, just listening to the wind chimes.

That’s when I noticed that, for the first time in several hours, I felt calm. So, I sat down in a spot of sun on my deck and let go of needing to do anything else.

I sat there for… Oh, I don’t know; maybe ten minutes?

For ten minutes I sat in just that moment. I savored the symphony of wind chimes. I felt the cool breeze on my body. I drifted with the songs of chirping crickets as they waxed and waned. I reveled in the brilliant blue sky, cloudless and crystal clear. I watched two squirrels chasing each other up and down a fence and across the neighbor’s yard. I wondered at the beauty of the shasta daisies, crisply white and yellow against a sea of green, as they bobbed and swayed in the breeze (I even took this picture!)

And I breathed. Just breathed it all in. I sat in the middle of an absolutely spectacular moment on a perfect late summer day and… and nothing. I just sat and enjoyed being fully present.

My tank felt fully recharged after that.

Confession: I experienced a moment of guilt as I gathered my thoughts and came inside to my office. I’ve got so much to do, so many things on my desk. What was I doing?

I wasn’t Doing. I was Being. We gotta make our own happiness. This was one of my moments.

Don’t Watch TV! (well, maybe a little…)

Sometimes the statistics on advertising make me sad. The other day I read an article that reminded me that the average kid, by the time they enter school, will have already viewed 30,000 commercials. A typical working adult who listens to the radio as they commute by car on a freeway and who watches a hour of television daily can be subjected to between 300 and 1000 marketing messages daily.

One message, over and again: “Don’t be satisfied with what you have.”

Who can be happy when every minute of your day someone is telling you you can’t be happy unless you have their product? Unless you have a sexier car? The body of a supermodel! A bigger house! Nicer stuff!

Marketers live in mortal fear of satisfied people. Why? Because people who are satisfied are no longer consumers. They stop buying ‘stuff.’

~average hour of TV = 40 mins program, 20 mins commercials. Avg commercial 30 secs, that’s 40 per hour, not including product placement on TV shows and movies.

You’re exposed to such messages all over the place, of course. TV is the champion because so many people spend so much time in front of it.

I’m not REALLY saying you should stop watching TV. It does provide entertainment. Still, 33% of your viewing time is spent absorbing messages that say, “don’t be happy! don’t be satisfied!” And then you wonder why you can’t experience more happiness.

BE AWARE of the messages. Turn them off for awhile. Turn off the TV for one week, and let your system rest. Then when you go back to it, notice what happens to your contentment.