The Happiness Habit of doing less

Two quotes I love from recent podcast interviews:

“Success is not a game won by those who do the most but by those that focus on the least.” –Mia Hewett

“In a world of human doings, we have forgotten we are human beings.” –Kelly Keefe

You will increase your happiness in life if you start the habit of creating spaces of stillness to feel what is out of alignment.

We often try to do too much!

I had this conversation with my daughter this week.

She is about to be a senior in high school.

She is stressed about college.

She is stressed about having a job.

She is stressed about paying for gas.

She is stressed about her senior project.

She is stressed about friends.

She is stressed about swimming (her chosen sport)

She is stressed about cheer (the sport she decided to start this year)

She is stressed about paying for college.

She is stressed about her body image.

She is stressed about having a car to go to college.

Sound familiar?

Substitute the topics and you could create your exact same list.

My advice: do less.

I called her today and told her she needed to do 4 things:

1. Make a list of the times in high school she has felt:
   1. Happy
   1. Fulfilled
   1. Proud
2. See what they have in common and create a list of 5ish core values that those experiences represent.
3. Identify the activities that don’t fit.
4. ELIMINATE THOSE ACTIVITIES!

This is difficult. Once you have invested time, money, and emotion into something it is hard to quit! (Sunk cost fallacy).

But I reminded her, if you are out of alignment with a part of your life, the worst thing you can do is spend more time doing it and your best decision is to quit as soon as possible!

I have the same advice for you.

Create some space.

Go through the 4 points above.

Eliminate something from your life.

Feel happier!

Make sure to check out my podcast for the full interviews with Mia and Kelly!

And if this has been helpful for you, I would love if you would forward it to one other person!