I was sitting at my kitchen table writing yesterday, and a thought occurred to me; I am the happiest I have ever been in my life.

It was the smell of Italian dressing that started the whole thing. I was writing, and my plate from lunch was sitting next to me. I had made a lovely wrap with Italian dressing.

I can be a pretty OCD type person. The smell of the Italian dressing from the plate caught my attention. Usually, I would wish that the plate was magically gone so that I would be writing from a thoroughly clean and pristine surface.

Something different happened this time.

I was grateful for how delicious that wrap was. And that was what started it.

I was grateful for the chair I was sitting on and the table I was writing on and the home I live in and the children, oh those children, those glorious creatures that were currently sleeping so peacefully just a few feet from me, I was grateful for them and for my husband, my beautiful patient brilliant husband, I was grateful for their health and for mine, I was grateful that from where I was sitting I could see the sky and it was spectacular.

Now here is the thing, my life looks nothing like I thought it would look.

Maybe that is the best part.

Often our ideas of who we are supposed to be or what we are supposed to want and need are not of our creation. We fail to slow down and internalize what is genuinely our guiding principle. What are you working towards, what brings you joy, and how can you align your daily life with these ideas?

This misalignment is often true of people who acquire money quickly; they are rarely able to keep it. You hear stories of lottery winners or celebrities quickly obtaining large sums of money and just as quickly spending all of it. Often they are in worse shape than before they came into the windfall. They lack the guiding principle to manage their money. Without the habits and insights that come with acquiring those habits, it is nearly impossible to know what to do with their newfound wealth.

And so they do what you think you are supposed to do with money; spend it!

For the individuals who do earn their money, there is a different set of ideas and habits at work. The path has been intentional and deliberate. Along the way, they have learned, evolved, and changed. Without this journey, it would be easy to allow outside influences to sway and cajole you.

So what does any of this have to do with my delicious wrap and my abounding happiness you ask? Life is just like this.

You have to earn your happiness.

You have to take the journey. No one can do it for you.

If someone could grant you happiness the way individuals win the lottery, the result would be much the same. That first couple of months would be spectacular, nothing but you and your unearned happiness. Months pass, and maybe friends and family know of your abundance of happiness. They call hoping you can give them a bit. You oblige because you have more than enough. Years pass with decisions made without purpose and direction.

One day you realize you are miserable. Without a guiding principle, happiness, and money can be relatively elusive.

This idea is a big one. If you can wrap your head around this and genuinely start to implement it in your daily life, you are ahead of most people.

Don’t just enjoy the journey; be grateful for the journey. Sometimes the journey is awful. It would be ridiculous to enjoy this, but it is a part of you, and that makes it meaningful.

The lows make the highs that much better.

We all have our stories. My teens and early twenties were hard. I could look back and be resentful or wish it away. What I find is that those struggles allow for my joy to be greater.

Happiness resides in the details.

I will be having a hard day with my kids, screaming, whining, tantrums, and then my daughter will laugh this big belly laugh like nothing I have ever heard, and it brings me more joy than I ever knew was possible.

Be it your finances or your happiness you have to earn it if you want it to matter.

And so I sit at my lovely kitchen table and write, so grateful for this life I have created for myself and my family. Happy and excited for the future.

How are you? How are things? I would love to hear your thoughts!