My Story…
Throughout my adult life, I’ve been asked
three questions more than any others:
(1) “Have you always been this joyful?”
Although I’ve experienced an abundance of blessings throughout my life, the short answer to this question is: no. I’ve done plenty of things that hindered my own Joy Potential, and I know intimately well what it’s like to do the very things that don’t work when it comes to our happiness.
(2) “Are you always this happy?”
Although I sincerely feel a tremendous amount of joy on a daily basis, I am a wholehearted advocate for feeling and healthily expressing all of our precious and natural feelings (like sadness, disappointment, frustration, and fear). I’ve made a huge commitment to myself to embrace and love all of my feelings because I know, when I honor them consciously, it becomes the exact pathway to my greatest joy. So, rest assured, joy is not about living in denial, hiding our less pleasant feelings, or being inauthentic about the human experience. In fact, those are some of the biggest myths I like to bust.
(3) “How do you stay so joyful?”
This question is dearest to my heart and the one I’ve been asked the most — from people at the grocery checkout, colleagues, friends, family, my dental hygienist, my car mechanic, neighbors, clients, my mail carrier, people I’ve known for years, and those I’ve just met.
For years, when people asked this question, I would answer something like: “there’s just so much to be grateful for.” But I saw the hunger in their eyes and longed to offer a fuller response, one that would give them clear and easy guidance to experience more joy in their own lives.
Deep down, a small part of me once wondered if I was just really fortunate, lucky, blessed, if I’d somehow won the joy lottery. I even felt guilty at times for how much joy I experienced and sometimes quieted it, denied it, or pretended it wasn’t there.
Then, nearly a decade ago, I set out on a quest to
study myself and my life, day in and day out.
How did I experience so much joy?
It only took one day into this self-study for me to realize how often so called “bad” things happened in my life. This realization relieved and delighted me.
In fact, in the first months of documenting my life in this way, one of my best friends (who had been living with us for 5 years) died young of cancer, my family and I were in a serious car accident, our beloved dog needed two massive surgeries, I didn’t get things I thought I tremendously wanted, I had a boss who others quit their jobs just to avoid, I lost and broke things, people were dishonest and didn’t follow through on things, and on and on.
Others around me were struggling through these same kinds of things, and, although I felt the full spectrum of emotions — my deep well of inner happiness was unshakable. And there were specific (and teachable) things I was doing to create my joy, things I didn’t see others doing.
From my extensive personal experience of joy, my in-depth study of Positive Psychology and the science of happiness, and thousands of sessions with clients, I can now say, with utmost conviction…
Every single one of us can win the joy lottery.
We all have a Joy Potential we can tap into.
And I feel so grateful to have developed a clear process
to help you do so.
