Happiness Challenge – Accountable
Being accountable for how I’m in service to others with both cooking and yoga inspires me to bring much more enthusiasm to both.
Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT
I discovered a month or so ago, the Happiness Project is for people who are responsible. The challenge for responsible people is they are responsible to everyone else, and usually put their needs behind servicing the needs of others. Today’s term is “accountable.” I find that when I become accountable to myself for my happiness, it’s far easier to find my way to being enthusiastically engaged in the things that bring me meaning in my life – even if that is being responsible for other’s well being. For example, I love cooking for other people. I was contemplating how it was yesterday I joyfully made this amazing bolognese sauce because my sweetheart asked me too, yet I struggled to make my way to my yoga mat. It took absolutely no effort to make the sauce, yet it took tremendous effort (and discipline) to do the happiness yoga flow. Today I found it much easier to make my way to the yoga mat and had a much deeper yoga practice as well.
I remembered reading something Madison wrote about a week ago about her early experience with this happiness challenge. When creating a new habit, missing a day here and there is not that big a deal, as long as you get right back on it the next day. Yesterday was most certainly not my finest hour with doing the happiness yoga flow, but today I was back at it, enthusiastically engaged and on it. I took time yesterday to reflect on my motivation, ability and triggers. I realized I was whining about it taking me 20 minutes to do yoga – but seriously? It took me an hour to make the bolognese and I didn’t give it a second thought. I didn’t even have to talk myself into making it. I just did it because it brought me so much happiness. But the reality is doing the happiness yoga flow does the same thing – the difference I perceive – it’s only for me. And doing something only for me – well that is a new concept – I’m one of the “responsible” ones. Unwinding this though – is this really only for me? When I make the time to do yoga, I’m much more present for everything and everyone else – so this really is being responsible to other people.
So there you have it – I’ve just created a new motivation and a new trigger for doing the happiness yoga flow every day. I enjoy being accountable to other people for their well being – it’s how I’m wired. Doing the happiness yoga flow helps me stay anchored to what creates vitality in my life – serving others.
