Why Am I Unhappy? 5 Reasons That Diminish Joy In Your Life 
By Michelle Greene

Most of us at some point in our adult lives may ask this question – “Why Am I Unhappy”? I’m going to share 5 reasons which may contribute to your unhappiness. I want to introduce you to Nicole. Nicole is sad and unhappy with the life she’s living. Today, you’ll discover the first 5 reasons why Nicole is so unhappy. You may even see glimpses of yourself and how you’ve been absolutely successful in stealing joy from your life!

If you watch children at play, whether indoors or on the playground, you’ll notice the majority of children are happy. Of course, there will always be events in kids’ lives that may cause unhappiness, but this is usually a happy time for most children. 

So what happens to us as we leave the teenage years behind and enter adulthood? We start conforming to adulthood and gradually abandon our dreams. We settle for a life of mediocrity. We tell ourselves we’re being responsible adults and resign ourselves to doing things that simply don’t make our heart sing. Underneath it all, that nagging question “Why Am I Unhappy” raises its ugly head over and over again. 

Reason #1: Unrealistic Expectations

Nicole expects perfection both in people and in the things she does. This quest for perfection causes her undue stress. When things fail to go the way she expects them to, her expectations are dashed and unhappiness sets in – once again.

Reason #2: Settling for a Life of Mediocrity

Unfortunately, Nicole is in good company with several other people in this regard. Because of past frustrations and failures, she wrongly believes her future is set in stone, based on her personal history. To avoid further disappointment, she has resigned herself to living a life of quiet desperation.

Reason #3: Letting Others Control Your Emotions

This one hits home for many people. They let others control their emotions. For example, Nicole works as a salesperson in a department store. When people treat her rudely, she allows their opinion of her to define herself. She gets upsets and then becomes annoyed with herself for giving strangers control over her emotions. This continues the cycle of unhappiness.

Reason #4: Not Taking 100% Personal Responsibility

A surefire recipe for unhappiness is not taking 100% responsibility for everything that happens to you. This is a bitter pill to swallow because so many people would just love to have someone else to blame. A scapegoat. This way, the pressure is off them and they don’t need to look at the real reason for their unhappiness – themselves.

Reason #5: Not Imagining Your Possibilities

I like to think that imagination is an adult tragedy. As we cross the bridge from childhood to adulthood, we sometimes lose our imagination. Recapturing your imagination, remembering the lost dreams you had and pursuing them will stop you from asking yourself the question “Why Am I Unhappy”. Anything that you want to be, do or have is within you. You must harness the courage to play big.

So there you have it – 5 reasons that cause you to be unhappy. Perhaps you saw a glimpse of yourself in Nicole. When you take life so seriously, it can make you miserable. By embracing one of the natural laws of the universe – the law of polarity, which states that everything has an opposite action, all that you need to do is reverse the first five reasons and start creating the life you deserve.Want to use this article on your website, blog or in your own ezine? If so, just be sure to include the information listed below:

Michelle Greene is the founder of LifeUnstuck.com a website dedicated to helping you get your life unstuck. Are you tired of saying to yourself, “I don’t know what to do with my life”?  If you’re frustrated with the results or the lack of results you’ve been getting, it’s time to stop holding yourself back. Download Ms. Greene’s free video Training series: ‘The 3 Step Solution to Get Your Life Unstuck”.  http://www.lifeunstuck.com

5 Revelations Why Christmas Traditions Can Make You Depressed

As the Christmas season approaches, there’s usually a feeling of yuletide cheer in the air. All you have to do is turn on the TV and you’ll see the holiday movies and cartoons. My favorite is ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’, especially the part where the poor dog is behind the sled rolling down the mountain.  For some people, Christmas doesn’t seem to be the most joyous season of all. It can be a time for mild to extreme sadness. To help prevent this, we’ll look at some reasons why the traditions of Christmas can make you depressed and how the following 5 revelations can put you in a different frame of mind.

Revelation #1: Childhood Memories

Childhood memories are wonderful, and it’s fun to stroll down memory lane. If we’re honest with ourselves, there are things about our childhood that weren’t so great. These memories continue to affect us into adulthood. Consider seeing the traditions of Christmas from a new perspective – the perspective of Christmas as an adult. Christmas childhood memories will always be with us, but don’t use them as a measuring stick as to how Christmas should be for you now.

Revelation #2: Stop Trying to Recreate the Past

This goes hand in hand with revelation number 2. If you have certain childhood memories you enjoyed and want to pass on to your children, then do so. However, if you’re trying to recreate the past, you may be setting yourself up for double D’s – depression and disappointment. The past is the past. We can’t expect to have things just as they were. Once you accept this, you’ll have a lot less stress during this time of year.

Revelation #3. Create New Adult Christmas Traditions

As an adult, you get to be creative and set up traditions that support you and make you feel great about this time of year. Embrace the wonderful technology that’s so prevalent in our lives today and create some new traditions. Once you adopt a new mindset about Christmas, you may even start to look forward to it. Traditions can be created by anyone at any time of the year. 

Revelation #4. Learn to Say No Without The Need for an Explanation

Stress and depression usually creep into your life because of the expectations you may have about the holidays. One way to empower yourself at Christmas, and throughout the year is to learn to say no, without any explanation. This may take some practice, but when someone asks you to do something and deep down inside you don’t want to, just give your biggest smile and say, No, I won’t be able to do it. Don’t feel obligated to provide an explanation. Just this alone can take a huge amount of stress from your life, not just during the holidays, but all year.

Revelation #5: Think of Others

Sometimes, most of the depression and sadness we feel is when we focus too much on ourselves. There is always someone less fortunate than you. With this awareness, you can always find something in your life to be grateful for. When you feel down in the dumps, think of what you can do to make someone else happy. A side effect of making others happy is that you become happy in the process.

Keep in mind that at this time of year, you don’t see the world as it is, you see the world as you are! Be in control of the traditions of Christmas and make a choice to create new traditions this year. Merry Christmas. 

Want to use this article on your website, blog or in your own ezine? If so, just be sure to include the copyright information listed below:

Michelle Greene is the founder of LifeUnstuck.com a website dedicated to helping you get your life unstuck. Are you tired of saying to yourself, “I don’t know what to do with my life”?  If you’re frustrated with the results or the lack of results you’ve been getting, it’s time to stop holding yourself back. Download Ms. Greene’s free video Training series: ‘The 3 Step Solution to Get Your Life Unstuck”.  http://www.lifeunstuck.com

I turned to books, as I love to read to find a solution. The Beck Diet Solution and The 3 Hour Diet are resources I’ll be using during my journey to release the excess weight.

The 3 Hour Diet claim a health weight release of 2 pounds a week is idea. A slow and steady reduction allows skin to shrink and not be left with excess skin, something I’ve been concerned about.

Another tool is to find out your bmi, you can do that with a free bmi calculator for women here! Besure to have a tape meansure handy.

However, I think the rewards are great, extra skin or not, there’s always surgery right? I hope to get a jump of my new years resolutions with weight loss. My goal is 8 pounds a month, so I’ll weigh in again on January 2, 2012.

Realize that the reason you’re stuck is because you want more.  It’s human nature to aspire to have more and be more.  Yet, this sometimes brings about feelings of guilt.  It’s key that you don’t confuse ambition with gratitude.  Being grateful for all that you have is necessary to helping you get unstuck in life.  It’s OK to want more out of life.  You just have to define what more is for you. 

I believe the culprit the majority of people get stuck is because of a lack of clarity about what ‘more’ is.  What’s the real reason you say “I am stuck in life”?  Is it because your dreams and intentions are unclear?  If so, you must gain the crystal clarity of knowing what it is you want.  This is a key factor in getting your life unstuck. 

If you don’t know what you want, it’s virtually impossible to get it.  And this contributes to a loss of direction.  I suggest you take time and brainstorm what you want to do going forward.  It’s like visiting a mall and going up to the directory of stores.  It has a, “You Are Here” indicator.  Without this point of reference, it will be almost impossible for you to visit the store you’re interested in.  And, so it is with getting unstuck.  You have to know your starting point before you can get to your destination.

Next, decide what your destination is.  You may simply be stuck because you don’t know what to do.  It’s super important to find an existing plan or create one.  There are several sources online that can help you devise a plan based on your newfound clarity.  But, you must apply the information you have.  You’ve got to take action to reach your goals and desires.

As you’ll see, getting unstuck is about first getting clear about what you want in life, determining your starting point and destination and creating a plan to get there.  Before you know it, you’ll be on your way to getting your life unstuck.

Procrastination can be pleasurable.  You get pleasure not doing what needs to be done. To stop procrastination, you’ll need to exhibit self-discipline in the early stages.  The act of deferring what needs to be done is simply a bad habit and like any bad habit, can be replaced if your desire is strong enough.

At first, it will be difficult, however if you follow the two suggestions below, it will become easier as you create empowering habits that enhance and support the intentions you have for your life.

Suggestion #1:  Create A List Of What Needs To Be Done Daily

This may appear overly simplistic, but do you have a to-do list of things that need to be done on a daily basis? Most people don’t.  The majority of the time you delay is because you are unclear of what tasks need to be done.  After you’ve completed your daily list, prioritize your list in order of importance.  Say to yourself WTF, that’s worse things first.  This helps you to get the things you don’t really want to do get done, when your energy is high as opposed to waiting later in the day as your energy fades.  As you complete your list, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and pride.  This is because your brain releases a hormone called Beta-endorphin.  This is nature’s  ‘feel-good’ hormone or nature’s ‘happy drug’.  Just this alone should provide you with incentive and momentum to stop procrastinating.

Suggestion #2:  Do Similar Tasks At the Same Time

While going through your to-do list, perform similar tasks at the same time when possible.  Here’s a good reason to do this.  As you approach a task to be done, you have to prepare to do the task, then you have to do the task, and finally you wrap up doing the task.  This starting and stopping action eats up valuable time and energy and can make it seem as if you’re working hard and have nothing to show for it.  Grouping your tasks together increases your personal productivity.

A huge benefit of stopping procrastination is that your life will substantially improve.  As you make a daily habit to consistently create a to-do list and accomplish your tasks, you will slowly stop procrastination in its tracks.  You’ll be delighted to see how eliminating procrastination can lower stress and make you feel as if you’re in control of your day, rather than the other way around.  And lastly, don’t procrastinate applying the suggestions on how to stop procrastination.

It seems that popular culture loves to dodge responsibility.  However, the exact moment you choose to take 100% responsibility for your life is the moment you take back control your life and claim the personal power you’ve always had. 

Taking 100% responsibility can bring a sense of confidence and calmness to your life.  Knowing that you are responsible for the results you get will cause you to stop making excuses when things don’t go the way you expected.  Instead of seeing your results as a failure, consider it a success.  All outcomes are successful; it may not be the outcome you wanted.  And the beauty of this is you’ve got personal evidence of what will and won’t work.  This saves you precious time because you learn from your results and you don’t repeat the same actions next time.

As you become responsible for your life, it will cause you to see that everything in life has a price and you must pay it.  If you’re honest with yourself, you may find you don’t really want to pay the price.  However, you either pay in one way or the other; you pay the price with the pain of self-discipline, which can feel like pounds today.  Or, you can pay with the pain of regret, which can feel like tons in the future.  This is totally up to you. 

When you choose to be responsible for your life, you also give up playing the blame game.  How often do you consciously or unconsciously blame someone for what you don’t get?  Perhaps you blame your employer, an organization, the government, the economy, your circumstances, or the good old standby; your parents.

If you’ve blamed others or yourself for less than desirable circumstances in your life today, choose to break this type of behavior.  Accept and forgive yourself and others for what happened to you in the past.  Resolve to move forward.

As you create your personal definition of responsibility, you’ll discover that making the choice to be accountable for your life will give you the personal power to be do or have what you want and to live your life by design and not by default.

What is your definition of responsibility? Knowing this can help you create your exciting lifestyle.  Claim your free gift today from www.LifeUnstuck.com