Happiness Freedom Fighters

Have you ever felt like you were at a major low point in your life? It happens to all of us and when it does it can seem dark and hopeless at the bottom. What you do when you find yourself there will dramatically determine how successful and happy you will eventually become.  In this episode you get a sneak peek into the audio version of chapter 3 of my book, Getting Paid To Play With Puppies, and learn how I dealt with one of the lowest points in my life. 

As you travel through life you will encounter a number of obstacles to your own personal happiness. Some of these will be obvious, however the most dangerous enemies will be the ones that slip under your radar.  The most powerful negative influence to your own happiness actually travels with you all the time - your cell phone.  Although it can be a very useful tool, it's often the cause for much of our suffering and can even ruin your relationships and productivity. Learn how to utilize your phone properly, while minimizing the negative affects it can have on you in this episode.  

Are you open to new opportunities? Most people will say yes, of course, but is your mind really open to new possibilities and receptive to exploring what's out there? Christy Largent joins the show to share her journey on how she shifted careers in a big way AND took on parenting later in life. Her gut told her her career wasn't what she was meant to do so she broke out of her comfort zone and embraced an exciting life as a public speaker. All her success is due to her cultivating an opportunity mindset and it's something you NEED to have to achieve all your goals. 

How do you walk away from a career you've spent lots of time and money to create, when you realize it's not making you happy? It takes great courage and determination - especially when you're starting over at something totally new, that you know nothing about.  That's exactly what this weeks guest, Karla Merrell, did. She totally reinvented herself when she left her career in law to pursue her passion of event planning. Karla shares how she was able to make the switch, become successful and gives you lots of great tips on how you can change course and create a more fulfilling life for yourself - no matter what your story is. 

It seems that meditation is now trendy and has made its way into main stream society. It used to be something that only bald monks did but now everyone from athletes to CEO's are sitting in silence. So, what is this meditation thing? Is it just a fad or is there something to it? I'll give you the average person's guide to meditation, why it might be something to try out and how you can get started. Come on, enlightenment awaits!

You don't have to be at rock bottom to reinvent yourself. You have the ability (and permission) to transform any area of your life at any time to make it more awesome. Good shouldn't be "good enough" when you have the potential and ability to pin the needle on your happiness.  My guest on the show today is continually reinventing her life to improve it in new and exciting ways. Learn how Amira Alvarez upped both her career and her relationships to amazing new levels. 

Realizing she was an alcoholic at age 20 was only the first of many challenges Julie Eisenmann had to overcome in her lifetime thus far. Over and over again she's been dealt curve balls by life, forcing her to reevaluate her life and make necessary course adjustments.  Julie has been able to always come out the other side happier and more fulfilled because she understands her truth and takes the actions to make things happen. In this episode, she shares how she's been able not only change careers and move to a totally new place, but also how she has found happiness along the way. 

Having a goal is great. BUT a goal without a plan to get you there isn't very useful at all and it's unlikely that you'll reach it. The key to success is to create a plan to get you where you want to go and develop a system to track your progress and make course corrections along the way.  In this episode I'll share my system of mapping out my plan to achieve my goals and how I've made implementing my planning process a habit that continually gets done week after week. 

There can be many challenges when you're trying to reinvent yourself or working to accomplish a big goal. What we often don't realize is that the biggest obstacle in our way is ourselves.  We continually subconsciously sabotage our success and undermine our forward progress due to bad habits and faulty programming. It doesn't have to be that way though.  In this episode I'll go over a number of ways that you can change your pattern and get out of your own way so that the path to success is clear. 

Raising our kids is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in our entire lives, yet most of us go into with very little education or knowledge about how to live and guide our children. We just assume that we’ll figure it out as we go and often that can lead us into trouble and boat loads of stress.  I’ve found that with the right guidance, we can not only survive the process of raising our kids but also enjoy the ride PLUS help our them to develop and grow into great young adults. Thanks why I brought on parenting coach Maria Sanders on the show to share some ideas on how we can be better parents and create an improved family unit. 

Most of our behavior is made up of a series of habits. Some of these habits are very useful and beneficial to us, while others have a negative affect on our lives. Whatever you do consistently over time will eventually become a habit. The only question is are you creating good habits or ones that are not serving you? I'll give you ten new habits that you can begin creating that will improve your life and set you up to be more happier for all your days to come. Try out just one or incorporate as many as you can and see the results to your life. 

Sometimes a series of life events leads you down a road you had no intention of being on and you only realize you're way off course when you're at a bad place. I met todays guest, Nikki Wong, when she when she was on her slow spiral downward but in only a short time she saw what was happening, made a very conscious choice to change and turned everything around pretty quickly.  During my conversation with Nikki you'll learn what finally made her wake up and the actions she took to get a better half. She'll share what actions she took to turn her physical and mental health in a bright and happy new direction. 

When I met my wife, she was mildly athletic. Did the occasional group fitness class but never ran more than a block at one time. Then one day she decided to become a runner and in a few short years worked her way up to completing her very first marathon.  How did she go from never running to going for 26.2 miles in a row??? Find out in this week's episode. You'll learn the steps she took to complete her goal, which you can use for anything you're trying to accomplish. 

We have stuff we're trying to overcome. Sometimes it's big stuff, other times it's little everyday challenges that pile to make a big difference in our lives. Either way, we need the right tools to face these obstacles and come out the other side in a better place.  Scott Chesney comes on the show and shares his inspiring story to help you get a better understanding of how you might face the things that life throws your way. He's an inspiring dude and offers a lot of great tips and wisdom of how to fight for your happiness. 

If you really want to stop just going through the motions of life and start enjoying your days to the fullest, you need to live with "Ratitude." In this episode I'll show you what Ratitude is and how you can harness it's power to fuel your life and maximize your happiness in every moment. You'll also see how you can create regular routines to cultivate positive habits that will have huge ripple effects on every aspect of your life. 

When Danielle Arroya decided to leave her teaching job and move to a brand new place she really didn't have any idea of what she was going to do. She new she was ready for something new - something that got her excited and would give her the lifestyle she wanted. With no experience at all, she jumped into ecommerce and started selling things on Etsy.com.  Learn how she did it, the struggles she had and her big take aways, as she grows her business from the comforts of her own home. 

Before you can mount up on your own happiness journey, we need to bust so myths and common misconceptions of being happy. After we get through the false hype and understand the false beliefs we may be holding onto we'll finally be able to create big break throughs in our lives.  In this episode we'll discuss some of the more common misunderstandings about happiness and make sure there's nothing holding you back from living and more awesome life. 

If you're in a career or job that's not bringing you the enjoyment you want and deserve out of life, it might be time to reinvent yourself and switch to something that brings you daily fulfillment. In this episode I share my own career journey, which has encompassed 5 totally different careers. Each time I made a switch I had to start at the bottom and work my way up.  It wasn't always easy but I was able to become successful in each one. Not because I'm special but because I did a few key things that led to my success. I'll share them all with you so you can implement them to make your own career reinvention. 

If we're not very aware we can get caught in "the drift" of life. That is slowly moving away from where you want to be in life, little by little, over time. This can take place in just about every aspect of our lives: health, professional, relationships, financial, spiritual, anywhere. After a while it seems we're so far off course that it's impossible to escape. That's when we settle. We accept our "lot in life" and lay idle in disappointment.  BUT what many don't know is that you can change things - you can totally reinvent yourself and create a much better outcome for yourself. You just need to know what the process looks like so you can begin to head down that path. In this episode we'll go over the exact steps you need to take to reinvent yourself to a new and improve version of yourself. 

Welcome to the very first episode of The Happiness Freedom Fighters podcast. In this initial episode I introduce myself and go over the purpose of the show, who it’s for and what you can expect in the upcoming episodes. I’ll specifically talk about the qualities that make up a Happiness Freedom Fighter and why you may want to join our revolution and fight to improve your own happiness. We’ll also go over the structure of the podcasts and how you can get the most out of all the great info you hear.