How to be happier and create a life and business that you love

This blog post was first published on 5 January 2021

This week on the blog we’re going to be guiding you on how you can create a life and business which truly lights you up!

SUPER SIMPLE STEPS

Ultimately, we all want to feel happier, but sometimes we can be so focussed on doing and achieving, that we forget to live. We can get so caught up in the day to day and what we need to do to get through the week that we lose touch with what it is that we really want. Months and sometimes even years can go by before we realise we’re so out of alignment with what is important to us. We get so bogged down in our to-do lists, that we forget that there’s more to life.

The thing is, happiness isn’t something that you just get, you have to be intentional and work out what you need to prioritise in order to cultivate it from the inside out. It’s so easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking of “I’ll be happy when… I’ve launched my next offering, reached the next milestone in my business or bought a house etc” that we forget about cultivating happiness in the present moment and enjoying the journey. Many people live their lives through the lens of seeing ourselves and other people as either naturally happy or naturally unhappy. Although approximately 50% of happiness is determined by our genes, a significant 40% of our happiness is determined by our internal state of mind. Life has its ups and downs, and at the same time, it’s important to note that only 10% of our happiness is determined by our circumstances.

The good news is that we’ve got a 2 part process to support you to be happier and create a life that you love, which is an absolute game changer. Please give yourself the gift of investing in yourself and your goals by taking the time to complete this. It’s really eye-opening and you’ll be amazed at the results.

If you’d rather watch our video of Lucy guiding you through the process, check out our Youtube Video on how to create a life and business which makes you happier. Lucy also shares her story about the pivotal moment she had as she was driving back home to London on New Years Day in 2016, which lead her to prioritising her happiness, including climbing Kilomanjaro and so much more.

1. Rank the areas of your life

Grab a piece of paper and split your page into 6 boxes for each of the following areas of your life: career, money, love, relationships, health and happiness. Then tune in and rank each area out of 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. Don’t overthink this too much, simply write down the first number that comes into your head for each aspect of your life. Then take a step back and take a look at your list. It’s unlikely that you’ll have ranked each area as a 10. Quite often certain areas will rank higher than others because you’ve prioritised them. For example, your career might be a 9 because you’ve been really focussed on growing your business, whereas your relationships may be a 4 because you’ve invested so much time elsewhere that you’re not making time to nurture your friendships.

2. Reflect on each of the scores

Once you’ve ranked your career, money, love, relationships, health and happiness, take a step back and reflect on each area and write down your reason for each number- everyone is unique. For example, you might rank money as a 4 because you bought a house, went on a big holiday or got married this year. Or maybe money is a 4 because you’re always worried about it. Maybe your health is a 4 because you’re not getting enough sleep, you’re inactive and you want to invest in a personal trainer, but you haven’t. Maybe your love life is a 4 at the moment because you’re arguing over money. Note down any common underlying themes behind any areas which you’ve given a low score. For example, money might the the underlying reason behind yo Take note of which areas score lower and which score higher. Then identify one thing that you want to change, what you want to prioritise and take action to make a change within the next 7 days. If your health is consistently scoring as a 3 you might decide that from tomorrow you’re going to prioritise your sleep by not looking at any screens for at least 1 hour before you go to sleep and will be in bed by 10pm, so that you can get at least 8 hours of sleep per night.

We recommend doing this exercise every 3 months to check in with yourself and re-evaluate your situation. That way you can ensure that your actions and what you’re investing your time in is aligned with your priorities regularly. It’s important to check whether the things that were making you happy 3 months ago are still making you happy and make any adjustments to make time for what helps to make you happy now.

Each time you re-do this exercise take a note of how the scores for each area compare to last time and whether there are areas which are consistently scoring lowly. Reflect on how much of an impact that is having on you overall and what this low score says about your current choices and priorities. Perhaps your health is always coming at the bottom of the list even though you know that your health supports you to give your best to your clients and give your best in your relationships.

Then identify what you want to prioritise, one thing that you want to change and what you’re going to do to take action to ensure you make it happen this time. Maybe you’re attending to your clients’ requests and needs before looking after yourself and you need to prioritise yourself more. Perhaps you’re instant messaging clients late in the evening when getting off technology and winding for bed would support you with your well-being. For example, if health is still scoring lowly even though you intended to prioritise it last time and reflect on what else may be going on for that score to not have improved significantly or at all.

If you did take action but aren’t seeing results, consider why this action may not have been sufficient for you to feel better in this area of your life. What is and isn’t working? What could you do to support yourself more in this area? If you kept the promise to yourself to stay away from screens for least 1 hour before bed, but you’re struggling to get to and stay asleep, what else could be going on? Are you drinking caffeine late and that’s affecting your circadian rhythm? Are you getting enough sunlight and exercise throughout the day?

If you didn’t take action, what is preventing you from doing so? For example, are you struggling to not look at screens before because find yourself checking your instant messaging platforms just before bed as you set your alarm? Then think about what you could do to support you to take action and put what you need to in place or motion. That might take the form of buying a separate alarm clock and putting your phone in a different room to your bedroom after a certain time- ought of sight, temptations and notifications way.

We hope that you found this helpful and we’d love to hear your thoughts. Email us at [email protected] to share your reflections and intentions for the rest of the year!

Take care,

Team Lucy Legal x