Be the Happy: Goal Accomplished!

Back in December, I blogged about my main goal for 2018.  You can find that wonderfully written piece here: http://3curlygirlies.blogspot.com/2017/12/2018-year-of-me.html

In a brief summary: I bumped into a teacher, who I'm now honored to call my friend, at L's school and I mentioned to her how I loved how she was always happy.  She radiates happiness and joy and she replied with a very serious look, "Life is too short for anything but." I mulled that over for a few weeks and decided 2018 was going to be my year of happy.  I set 3 goals for myself:
1) Laugh more
2) Yell Less
3) Try to find joy in everything

My hope was by the time 2018 closes, someone would tell me they love how happy I always am.

I didn't really put too much thought into accomplishing these goals, I just went about my business as usual.  I found myself smiling more, especially at strangers and I found myself empathizing with people more.  I've always been friendly, but with a distance.  Suddenly, I found myself striking up conversations with fellow Target shoppers about products, and once I offered to help a young, new Mom who was looking flustered with her crying baby and shopping cart. She thanked me but declined and I walked away feeling really good about myself. I saw myself talking to sales associates as though they were friends, and it made a difference in my shopping experience and most likely their day. I started laughing more and yelling less.

I found the joy.  I feel happy.  Even with all the stress going on in my life, I am still happy.  I'm so sad about moving, but I'm still happy.  Instead of looking at it as moving to a place where we only know a small handful of people, and the majority of those are family, I told the girlies we need to look at it as we are moving to a place where we have friends, we just haven't met them yet.

A few weeks ago, my Mom was in the car with me as we were coming back into her gated community.  I handed my license to the guard and said, "Hi Terri!  How are you today?" Terri answered and we had a brief conversation about her day so far, before I said, "Well, I hope it goes by quickly.  I'll see you later!"

My Mom started laughing and said, "How do you know her name?"

"Because I asked after the third time I came through and she was there," I answered, thinking it was obvious.

"Do you know all the guards?" she asked me.

"At this particular gate, I do," I said.

"Do you talk to all of them?"

"Yes, I do," I said. "They are people too and since I'm going to be seeing them quite often, I figured I'd get to know them."

My Mom told me I should watch the movie "Dear Heart" which is about a single woman, Evie Jackson, who makes it a point of talking to everyone like they are a friend (though instead of asking for a name, she would say, "She looks like a Gertrude. Hi Gertrude!") The movie was just OK, but I absolutely loved Evie. I've found when I treat everyone as though we are already friends, every situation becomes a happier one.  Even the most tedious tasks become more fun.

A change in attitude changes everything!  I mean sure, we all know this, but sometimes it's very tough to implement it.  When your day is going wrong from the get go, sometimes it's easier to give in to that than it is to attempt to change it.  One of the inspirational quotes the Curly Girlies found in their lunch boxes a few weeks ago was "A bad attitude is like a flat tire, you won't get anywhere until you change it."  It's so true. The world is a brighter, sunnier, happier place when you open your eyes and your heart.

Today, I was standing in line at Bed Bath and Beyond waiting to pay.  I was called to the next cashier and walked up to his station.  When I started unloading my cart, I asked, "Hello, how are you today?"

"Fine," he replied. "Are you from [our state]?"

"Yes, I am," I said. "Why?"

I thought maybe he was going to say I sounded like I was from out of town.

"Because you radiate such joy, happiness, and positivity and I don't see that often here," he explained.

My face lit up and I gushed, "Oh my! Thank you so much! You have no idea how much of a compliment this is to me!"

He smiled and said, "Well, it's true."

I explained to him about the goal I set for myself.

"I feel so accomplished knowing I made my goal!" I said excitedly.

He finished ringing me up, held up his hand and said, "Well, that deserves a high 5! Setting and accomplishing goals is huge!" We high fived, I blushed and floated out of there so pleased that without even realizing it, I somehow changed.

I have been saying after we move, I am going to the Mrs. G of L's school.  I mean, I'm not going to teach, but personality wise I want to be Mrs. G.  After today, I know that will be the case because a perfect stranger sees the joy and happiness I am now emitting.

This afternoon I was wandering around Target and found an iced coffee cup with "Some people pursue happiness, others create it" written on it. I used to look for happiness and I only rarely found it but now I create happiness and put it out there for others to find.  Being happy is certainly a lot more fun!