Happiness Depends . . . .

Happiness depends not on your number of free hours but on how you spend whatever time you have.  This was a header to an article by Catherine Hong “How to Be Less Busy”.  This headline really caught my attention.   It is so true but we don’t need to make our To Do List our priority.   

Your To Do List

Your To Do List will always be there . . . . . The items on your list are Never Ending, but our lives do have an expiration date.  So what you busy yourself with is Up To You. What do you really want to do with your life? Your Happiness Depends on You.

Time

When is your expiration date?   None of us know for sure.   We just keep living as if we have infinite time.  But we don’t! How do you want to spend your hours, days, weeks, years?  What do you want between your dashes?  Happiness depends on You!

I was introduced to this thought of The Dash by one of my employers long ago.   It has been a constant reminder to me when I contemplate what is important in my life and what my purpose is in life,

The Dash

I read of a man who stood to speak at a funeral of a friend.  He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning…to the end.

He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears but said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time they spent alive on earth and now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own, the cars…the house…the cash.  What matters is how we lived and loved and how we spend our dash.

So, think about this long and hard; are there things you’d like to change?  For you never know how much time is left that still can be rearranged.

To be less quick to anger and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile…remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read, with your life’s actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you lived your dash?    

the Book of Poems: Linda Ellis

https://hellopoetry.com/poem/1184764/the-dash-poem-by-linda-ellis/

What Is Between Your Dash

Happiness depends on what you put between your dash!  Stop and really assess who and what is important to YOU!

What will be between your dash?

• Accept the fact that you will never completely do everything on your To Do List.
• Say Yes to the things you really want to do and not what is expected of you.
• Learn to say NO to things you are only doing to please someone else
• Start out with the items on your  To Do List that you least want to do.  Once that is done you will feel some momentum to work “smarter not harder”
• Plug in FUN TIME on your list. This is so IMPORTANT.    As the saying goes all work and no play makes Jane a dull girl.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Just like organizing and minimalizing what you have you must find out what works for You!  Everyone is different and a one size fits all approach will not work.    If one way of keeping “a list” does not work then find another alternative that works for you.   Calendars with notes, To Do Lists, Mobile Apps such as Evernote, Taskito, Any.co and many others options are available.  Remember:  Happiness Depends on You.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

James 4:14