So, what brings you joy? What is the one thing in your life that you have discovered will consistently bring you out of a funk? What action can you take that you know will make you feel better?

“The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”
—Benjamin Franklin

Learning what our own personal “hook” is—that action we can take that we know will make us feel better—is wonderful knowledge to own. Let’s face it, no matter how determined we are to be positive, uplifting, and happy human beings, sometimes life gets in the way. We allow other people to influence our mood. We, at times, may beat ourselves up for not living up to the expectations that we have set for ourselves. We fall into the trap of forgetting that our most important goal is to seek our own joy and follow our own bliss.
When we know what our own personal hook is, we can very quickly change the direction in which we are headed. In essence, we can head off the negatives at the pass!

For some, their personal hook is a walk in the park. For others, it’s playing with their kids or their dog or cat. For my daughter, Carissa, it’s a trip to the coffee shop for her Iced Venti Nonfat Toffee Nut Latte.

“This is my ‘depressed stance.’ When you’re depressed,
it makes a lot of difference how you stand.  The worst thing
you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because
then you’ll start to feel better.  If you’re going to get any joy
out of being depressed, you’ve got to stand like this.”
—Charlie Brown

When I checked in at the office this morning, Carissa, who works for me, was having one of those “challenging” mornings. Lots of things had gone wrong. She was pretty much at her wits’ end. I encouraged her to do something to “change her energy.” She said, “I’m going for coffee!” My best guess is that when she said this she sat up taller. She decided to use her hook.

“Well, said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to
stop and think. Because although eating honey was a very
good thing to do, there was a moment just before you
began to eat it which was better than when you were,
but he didn’t know what it was called.”
—A.A. Milne

That “moment just before” mentioned above is the moment in which we decide to become deliberate about how we are choosing to feel. That moment just before is when we rediscover our power of being the deliberate creators that we all know we are. That moment just before is turning our attention to taking action that we know will make us feel good. That…is better than honey.

“It’s in your moments of decision
that your destiny is shaped.”
—Anthony Robbins

So, what is your hook? What is one thing you can do consistently that you know will make you feel better—even it’s just a little better? Everyone has one. If you’ve worked at it, you may even have several. Our own personal hooks are a great stepping stone to creating the life we know we are meant to lead…one little step at a time.

“The basis of life is absolute freedom. The purpose of life
is absolute joy. The outcome of life is absolute growth.”
—Abraham/Hicks