Choose Happiness Today

Mental GPS with Dr. Jana EP3
 
Are you letting the negative opinions of other people keep you stuck in a life you do not love? Dr. Jana cracks open the psychology of joy and shares how you can take total control of your everyday mood. From curating your digital feed to stepping away from toxic friendships, this episode provides a practical roadmap to reclaim your potential. 

Key Points 

• Your life should be actively enjoyed rather than simply endured, and you possess the power to make positive adjustments regardless of your current circumstances. 
• People frequently get stuck in undesirable situations because they listen to others who tell them what they cannot accomplish. 
• Intentionally changing what goes into your mind and actively modifying your physical surroundings can directly elevate your mood and feel good neurotransmitters. 
• Taking control of your personal happiness involves small daily shifts like pulling back from toxic friends or choosing positive educational content. 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good day. This is Dr. Janna Price Sharps. Thank you for joining. Today we're going to talk about being happy. And that seems like kind of an odd way to start these podcasts is talking about happiness. But really, in my philosophy, life shouldn't be just endured. It should be enjoyed. You should be able to enjoy what you do. Love the things that you get the opportunity to do. And if that's not the case right now, one of the things that I want you to start to think about is how do you make your life that kind of life? It may not happen immediately, but it can happen. Many years ago, when I was a kid, I started out very young. I left home very young. And I started out as basically field laborer. And I had lots of people through this adventure tell me I wouldn't be able to do things. They told me I was always going to end up working on ranches and doing heavy labor. And then finally I moved into town and started working in fast food. And they told me I was always going to work in fast food. And then I did some waitressing, and they told me I was always going to be a waitress. So many people are stuck. And part of the reason people get stuck is they listen to other people telling them that they can't do something. And 99% of the time they're wrong. But sometimes people maybe are stuck themselves. And so maybe they have to justify that they're stuck, you know, because if you move on, maybe that shows them that they could have done that and they didn't do that or they chose not to do that. I don't know. But what I want you to do today, and it's a simple exercise, but I want you to close your eyes. And I want you to think about if you could do anything in your life, what would you do? Would you just retire? Would you, I don't know, become an engineer? Would you become a teacher? Would you, I don't know, travel and then work your way backwards. Now, some of you may go be going, well, Jen, I'd be a millionaire. Okay, well, if that's your goal, but there's probably some stuff you need to put into place to get there, right? So there's lots of people that come from nothing and now are financially successful. A lot of my early life, I was lucky to have a roof over my head. So I get that. But I decided one day when I saw a rancher come out and he was all stove up and he was in a lot of pain. And I thought, ooh, I mean, to me, he was really old. He was probably in his 50s, and that isn't very old to me now. But I looked at him and I thought, I don't want to be that person. I don't want to still be doing this when I'm his age. And that planted the seed for me. And then later on, my father gave me some tapes of a man by the name of Zig Ziggler. And Zig Ziegler was a very famous motivational speaker. If you've never listened to him, I hope you do. He's passed on now, but you can still buy his material and you can still listen to it on YouTube. Phenomenal man, in my opinion. And I started listening to him. And I started hearing what he was saying. He would say things like, if there's power in the present, there's hope or hope in the future, right? Empowerment is important. He would say things like, you're where you are and what you are because of what's gone into your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind. And I started really thinking about what had gone into my mind for many, many years. And a lot of it was very negative. A lot of it was I'm stuck and I'm always going to be stuck. And when I started listening to him, I started realizing there's a whole world out there that I can access. I'm not sure how, but I can access it. And so now I'm a licensed psychologist, I'm a professor, I work with a nonprofit, I work with a for-profit, I work with lots of agencies, I have, I do all kinds of just awesome things that I enjoy. But I would have never dreamed I could do that when I was much younger. And but I kept walking forward. I kept going, I know out there is a day where I can set up my life and do things that will make me happy. I was in a terrible marriage. I got out of that marriage about the time I started listening to Zig Ziggler. And now I have the most wonderful husband. We've been married for 30 years this year, and he's my best friend by bar none. And so I'm very lucky to have everything that I have, but I'm not lucky. I worked hard. I worked my way through school doing jobs that I'm glad I don't have to do anymore. I made those connections. I took those leaps. I did things that people told me weren't possible, and I just kept chipping away at them and I kept doing them. And is every day easy? No, every day still isn't easy. But I keep moving forward. And so here's what I want you to take away from the podcast today. Number one, you can change your life. No matter what's going on, there is a way to make even small changes that will make your life better. But it starts with you. You can't wait for anybody else to do it for you. The second thing is, I want you to think about what would happiness look like? Increasingly, when I ask people to think back at a time when they were happy, I have people saying, I don't think I've ever been happy. That's heartbreaking. And so you deserve to be happy. You deserve to have a good life. And so what is something that you can add in that is going to make your life better? It may not be something big right now. It may be, I don't know, going to a movie. It may be going for a hike. It may be, I don't know, swimming somewhere. It doesn't have to be major things, but what are some things that you can begin to add in? Maybe there were things you did when you were younger. Maybe there were things that you've always wanted to do. I've had people that, you know, I've always wanted to paint, but I don't really know how to paint, so I took a painting lesson. I had another guy that said, Yeah, I really want to learn how to play the guitar, so he went to guitar lessons. I had another guy that said, you know, I always wanted to learn how to speak French. And he went to French lessons. There's all kinds of ways that you can begin shifting your life. Do it a little bit at a time, but do it. If you have toxic friends that put you down all the time, maybe you start pulling back from them a little bit and you start trying to gravitate towards people that are optimistic, that are happy, that, you know, want you to do good, are on a process of doing good themselves. Maybe you join an online community that is positive, not the ones that tear you down, not the ones that get you into trouble. Those are not the ones to join. But how about the ones that are saying, yes, life is hopeful. There are good things in life. There's a lot of great, amazing motivational speakers out there. Do you listen to them? Most people have a smartphone. YouTube is a great thing. I know there's all kinds of I know that opens up Pandora's box. But we do have access to more information now than we've ever had. Now, granted, you can access really horrible information, or you can access information about how to make your life better. Self-development kind of information. Are you doing that? If not, I would do that. Years ago, Zig Ziegler actually paid a medical doctor, I think he was a neurophysiologist, who came in and did a blood draw right before he did a one-hour motivational speech. And then right after the speech, he took that blood draw again. And I know for those of you who have a chemistry background or a medical background, there's this isn't as easy as it sounds, but I will say that dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and endorphin levels went up after one hour. Okay. Those are all your feel-good or a lot of your feel-good neurotransmitters. Our environment impacts our mood. If you have all the drapes drawn, if you're sitting in a dark room, if you, you know, don't have pretty things in your environment, or things that make you happy, things that bring back good memories, and you're just kind of sitting there in this very bleak place, start adding some pretty things or some happy things, or some things that remind you of good times. Environment makes a difference. Who you're hanging around makes a difference. What you're listening to as far as music makes a difference. What are you listening to or looking at on social media? Are you connected with a bunch of people that just hate everything? Or are you connected with people that are trying to see the good in life? Are you watching TV shows that are creating more hatred and division? Or are you watching things that are just funny? Are you at a job site where people are very negative? What do you do to change that? What do you do to either isolate from that or bring some happiness into that? What are some things you can do? Empower yourself. Don't just say, well, I guess this is what I am given, so this is what I have to do. Because you know what? If you read biographies of people all over the world, there are people that are just doing amazing things that come from comp excuse me, would you change that? Okay. Come from countries that are incredibly impoverished and they work their way up, they find their niche in life, and they start making those changes. So take control of your life. Realize you have a lot you can do to control your mood. Realize I've been doing this a long time and I've seen people do amazing things to shift their mood. Take control of your happiness because you deserve that. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to have a good life. I can't wait to continue working with all of you. Have a great day. Take care.