This week, we post a new personal growth tip or inspiration drawn from a recent Daily Dose of Happiness mailing.
Beware the vacuums...the human vacuums, that is.

There are people around us who are always taking.  They suck up our time and our energy, and they never give anything back.  They are vacuums.  Don't mix them up with people who are simply high energy and high interaction, taking much and giving much.

The vacuums can leave us with very little once they've sucked it all up.  If one of your close friends is a vacuum, watch out...you might already know what I mean.  You have to set some ground rules, most importantly to firmly say "no" when you don't want to go along with one of his or her plans.  That does not mean saying "no" all the time, unless you want to, just setting some limits and some boundaries.

Take control.  Switch off the vacuum.

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This week, we post a new personal growth tip or inspiration drawn from a recent Daily Dose of Happiness mailing.

"Rain, rain, go away.
Come again another day."

Everyone complains about the rain except the farmers...unless just too much falls.

But without the rain, there can be no plants.

And without the rain, there can be no animals.

And without the rain, we would have no well.

And without the well to drink from and the plants and animal to eat, there would be no people.  Before complaining about something, we should always think about the benefits it might be bringing.

So...let it pour!

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This week, we post a new personal growth tip or inspiration drawn from a recent Daily Dose of Happiness mailing.

In the world of instant gratification, we are constantly being reminded of all the things we don't have that we absolutely cannot do without.  Nobody bothers addressing that it might be more than an evolutionary accident that we have survived for millennia without these things.  Nor that we should not be coveting the things we don't have, when we spend so little time feeling grateful for the things we do.

The more time I spend talking, reading and thinking about happiness, the more I am convinced that gratitude is the biggest secret to happiness.  And that the lack of gratitude is the single biggest barrier we as a civilization face on our path to happiness.

Further reading is my article at:
http://www.thehappyguy.com/happiness-secret.html , which is drawn from an anthology I contributed to (It's actually a fantastic book that's like the greatest hits of self-improvement).

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This week, we post a new personal growth tip or inspiration drawn from a recent Daily Dose of Happiness mailing.

REALITY

Sometimes it can be frustrating.  Sometimes it can be exhilarating. 

Little Sister is good at this; she keeps doing whatever she is doing, oblivious to the little camera in my hand.  Over time, we will have a collection of memories of how she would act on a typical day at each stage of her growingupness - all the intonations, the favorite expressions, the sense of wonder and excitement. 

Little Lady meanwhile, is quick to perceive the camera and equally quick to become either a) and actor, carefully scripting her actions (no fingers in the nose!) or more often b) hamming it up with her face in the camera (so that's what a close up of a tooth looks like).

In the end, all the smiling photos won't mean as much as just a few minutes of real-life video footage of how the kids spoke and acted when no camera was present. 

Embrace reality; it is beautiful.

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This week, we post a new personal growth tip or inspiration drawn from a recent Daily Dose of Happiness mailing.

LEARNING

Life is a lesson.

A lesson in ethics, as we learn to do what's right.

A lesson in relationships, as we learn to work with others.

A lesson in creativity, as we learn to navigate new situations.

A lesson in self-control, as we learn to manage our actions and reactions.

A lesson in triumph, as we learn to survive unexpected events.

What lessons will you learn today?

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Speaking of learning, have you signed up for Happy Class to learn the way to happiness?

This week, we post a new personal growth tip or inspiration drawn from a recent Daily Dose of Happiness mailing.

SOLUTIONS

Not bad.  Little sister is counting to 20 pretty much without error in English, French and Spanish.  It is so exciting to watch little kids grow and how their mind develops.  At this age she has made much of the leap from wanting to do the motions she sees others doing to wanting to achieve the results others are achieving.

As adults, this is something we should understand.  But it is not always so.  Sometimes we get territorial.  Does it matter who does something, or does it matter that it gets done?  The entire world of diplomacy is centered around endless negotiations over minutia of who does what rather than focusing on making sure that everything gets done.  Households can be like that, too. Many workplaces are like that.

What would happen if you stopped being concerned about who does what, and focused on what needs to get done?  Or maybe you already are like that. 

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This week, we post a new personal growth tip or inspiration drawn from a recent Daily Dose of Happiness mailing.

APPRECIATION

Time flies, and already it's April Fools Day.  You can look forward to the warm caress of the spring sun or look back to all the things you planned to do in winter, but never quite got around to.  There certainly were plenty of those in our house.

But we also did a lot of things, visited a lot of people, had a lot of fun.  What little snow we got this year did get some use, even if we would have liked more.  We did get over to the arena a few times, even if not every weekend (and the girls did get their skating lessons).  And just before the snow melted, we finally got that winter campfire we kept meaning to do (not quite "once a week", but at least it was once!

And now we have spring to look forward to.  To finish that stone path, set up the patio table and maybe this will be the year we tame the forest in the loop of the driveway (but you'll have to wait for October to know for sure).  Either way, spring and summer will be great for all the things we will do, regardless of the things we don't.

Don't be an April Fool. Look forward to another four seasons to enjoy.

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This week, we post a new personal growth tip or inspiration drawn from a recent Daily Dose of Happiness mailing.

Here's a great contribution from a reader, that I thought I would share with you, too...

"Just wanted to share something with you and your readers that keeps me in "gratitude mode":  I give awards, daily, sometimes many times a day.

"As I drive my car (lease up in a few months; still grateful that I have it in the first place, and it runs well, and I can keep up the payments) or walk along the sidewalk (grateful that I CAN walk, even though I sometimes need a cane), if I see a bunch of flowers (weeds, or a garden, or a bouquet carried by someone, or the plantings at the M***'s drive thru), I look for the prettiest one, or the one with the most surprising color, or the one that obviously had the hardest struggle to survive -but made it-and I mentally present the "Best Blossom of the Day" award. 

"Or I'll give someone walking their dog the "Cutest Pup" or "Best Behaved Dog" award.  Or present the "Nicest Professional Outfit" award to someone on their way to work. Or a "Most Courteous Driver" award.You get the idea.

"Never are these awards announced to the recipients-they simply remain catalogued in my mind and heart.  They keep me alert to the beauty that is everywhere, however, and keep me 'living all the days of my life.'"

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NOTE:  This was feedback to an earlier Daily Dose, but already it is drawing its own feedback.  Here are a couple of the comments I have received:

MORE AWARDS

"That's Great!!!  Whoever that reader is, they should get one of their own awards, for coming up with such a cool concept.  I'm definitely going to remember this one, and put it to use, on a daily basis, until it becomes a habit.  That was truly a gem...

"And thank you, David, for passing it along...you get one of those awards, as well, for doing so."

MORE GRATITUDE

"I wanted to comment on today daily dose.

"I've done what this man does most of my life.  I call it praying all day long.  I've told other people that I pray all day long and gotten a few looks like I'm a bit batty.  It's nice to know there are others out there being grateful for the everyday ordinary little things. 

"It truly helps to focus on the positive especially with so much negative around us every day.

"Thanks for your work, another one of the positives I'm grateful for."

There was more feedback, too.  The best one, the most useful I suppose, will be a future Daily Dose for my ezine subscribers.

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This week, we post a new personal growth tip or inspiration drawn from a recent Daily Dose of Happiness mailing.

FAILURE

Failure is the most important ingredient in success.  Without failure, you cannot know what success looks like, just as without hunger you can never know what it feels like to be satisfied.  The better you taste failure, the more prepared you will be for success.

Don't waste your valuable failures!  Coddle them.  Embrace them.  Learn from them.  Harness them in every effort on your path to success.

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