My Mantra and the Meaning Behind It

Setting the mind up for success is crucial for maximizing happiness.  I read aloud the following each morning to help prepare my mind for the day.

For the greater good I must be honest.

For the greater good I must be logical.

For the greater good I must be sober.

For the greater good I must be positive.

For the greater good I must have purpose.

I'm going to break down my mantra to clarify its intended use for me.

For the greater good... This reminds me that I want to live to better the Earth.  Moreover, the greater good does not mean my immediate pleasure.  Helping myself may give moments of happiness, but helping others gives long-lasting happiness.

...honest.  By being honest, other people will trust me.  Trust must be maintained in positive relationships.  Sometimes the truth may be painful, but anger and dislike are the emotions we want to avoid.  Anger causes rash and illogical thoughts and actions.  These actions of anger must be avoided if communities are to happily thrive!

...logical.  We are driven by emotions.  There is no question in my mind there.  However, if we never pause, analyze, and reflect, then we develop hindering patterns in our lives.  By being logical, or looking for the cause of the effect, I can stop my hindering patterns and lead an even happier life!

...sober. Alcohol can excite many social gatherings. However, the problems I noticed in my life was the frequency of its use.  Every week alcohol would be the key ingredient for hangouts.  I found it to be a temporary happiness more than a long-lasting happiness.  

...positive. As stated earlier, I believe emotions are what drive us.  In order to maximize happiness, I need to highlight the good.  Falling prey to negativity is the easy way out.  Moreover, much of my life this year has been about complaining: the students don't put forth effort, worthless meetings are taking up my valuable time, the ideas the Republicans put out are almost always irrational, I'm not seeing immediate change, etc.  I must remember to look for the good in order to see it!

...purpose.  Few things taste as good as a large serving of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with Ovaltine sprinkled on top after a tough workout.  What made it taste amazing?  Not just the ice cream.  Accomplishing the task of working out was the secret ingredient!  It's amazing how the feeling of accomplishment makes the little things in life that much more enjoyable (I mean, who doesn't like chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream even if they didn't work out!).  More to my point, you can't impact the world if you aren't consistently chipping away at the problems you want to change.  Then, once you start feeling the changes happening, happiness stays for longer and longer periods of time.

The Power of To-Do Lists

I recently watched a video shared by Tony Robbins.  The video focused on how to get people to take action and put forth great effort in their endeavors.  The video had many great points, especially detailing what causes momentum in either success or depression, but I want to focus on what he brings up about the cause of happiness: progression.

Think about any time you were happy.  You may have received something new.  Or, in the most happy cases, you finished a difficult task such as a term paper or a business project.  In either case, you took positive steps in your life.  This leads me to the power of to-do lists.

To-do lists help make all the steps you want to take concrete.  By making the steps more concrete, they instantly become a higher value to you, or achievements to earn.  People love to earn achievements.  For example, the most addicting videogames (i.e. WoW) have achievements listed because people want the feeling of achievement.  A second benefit of to-do lists is there is a built in celebration of accomplishing these achievements: the cross out!  I think everyone needs to experience this to truly understand the satisfaction of crossing out something on a to-do list.  Lastly, to-do lists allow you the opportunity to place a reward as one of your tasks!  The oasis in the desert is a perfect analogy for the power of placing a reward on your to-do list.  You see the oasis off in the distance.  Each painful step gets you closer and closer to that oasis, but knowing you will get there eventually helps keep you motivated.  Then, once you get there there is immense satisfaction!  Now, to-do lists allow you to set-up your own oasis journey.  This turns a to-do list into the following: achievement, achievement, achievement, LARGELY SATISFYING ACHIEVEMENT!  In the end, to-do lists make difficult tasks become more like a game, with bonus fun achievements thrown in the mix.

Here's an example to-do list which is similar to one I've used in the past:
1. Grade 6th grade
2. Eat lunch
3. Grade 8th Grade
4. Work out
5. Grocery shop
6. Lesson Plan
7. Play WoW

Note how I broke up the worst part of my day (the grading and lesson planning), included mini rewards (eating lunch and working out), and ended with a big reward (playing WoW).  Then seeing them all crossed off made for a very satisfying celebration!

I'm also trying out using to-do lists to help me manage my classes.  The list allows students to know exactly what is planned, models a way to organize a day, and by making the crossing off a class celebration, I'm hoping to spread both joy and the use of to-do lists to my students.