Alli Ferguson: My 3 Powerful Secrets to Creating Lasting Happiness
For far too many of us, happiness seems elusive and we’ve learned to simply accept the dull, ho-hum existence of just getting by.
These are the 3 principles that I’ve found are the most powerful to lay the foundation on which to build a monument of happiness for a lifetime.
Defining Happiness
“Happiness” is that elusive thing that exists in the ether and the minds and hearts of people, and is so intangible that it seems ridiculous to think there could be something tangible that could create it or nurture it into our lives.
I’ve been a happy person for as long as I can remember, and when I reflect on what I do that nurtures that state, I come up with many things, but the top 3 that stand out are:
1. Have a neutral perspective.
Knowing that everything isn’t as great as it seems and isn’t as bad as it seems keeps us emotionally neutral, and that prevents the super high “ups” of the good stuff that happens and the super low “lows” of the bad that happens. It comes from a knowingness in our being that everything is for our greatest good overall, and has the potential to teach us a lesson if we have the courage to look for it. Remaining neutral allows us to not get swept away by our perceptions of what we see, but to see things as they really are. Since nothing is perfect, we need to keep our eyes open for potential pitfalls, and remaining neutral does that.
2. Workout hard every day.
There’s something that happens mentally and chemically when you train as hard as you can each day that cannot be duplicated another way. When you train hard, and I mean as hard as you can, you get comfortable putting your whole self into something and pushing your boundaries. When you do that, you don’t hold back, which means you have no regrets that you didn’t give it your absolute best. When you do your absolute best in everything, you cannot walk away from a situation feeling like you could have done better if it didn’t work out, and more often than if you don’t do this, you’ll win. Doing this daily expands your capacity for more each day, which allows more into your life (more love, more business, more friends, more success). This one simple act of training hard each day permeates each area of your life, and it becomes inevitable that you will more often than not get what you want in all areas of life. Which of course, makes us happy.
3. Make progress everyday.
In every area that matters, move forward toward greatness and make progress. Progress makes me happy because I know I’m ultimately getting what I want, and that makes me happy. Whether it’s making progress in earning more money, paying off debt, deepening relationships, finding new ones, building a strong body, or losing weight. All of these are things that take time to come to fruition so they require daily progress to be made if they will ever turn out in our favor. Even if the progress is small, you will know you made progress, and that builds internal integrity. Integrity makes us happy because we can trust ourselves to do what we told ourselves we would do. Trust is the foundation of any relationship and the most important one you have is with yourself. When you are happy with you, you are happy.
These 3 things are what I’ve noticed are lacking in most people who aren’t generally happy. I’m not talking about being sad over a particular event or circumstance that has happened, but I mean being a happy person. When we are internally happy, life is just better. Life becomes beautiful and something we want to participate in, and that causes us to give our unique and beautiful gifts to the world, which benefits the world.
Alli Ferguson is an entrepreneur in the fitness and financial worlds. She has brought her two passions together and is currently working with those who want to live the best life possible in the areas of fitness and finance. She is the mother of two and volunteers for Girls On The Run OC as a coach. You can find her at alliferguson.me and @alliferguson.
