Tag Archives: happy

Are You Addicted to Accomplishments?

Are you driven by checking off your accomplishments? Or do you find pleasure on the road to completion as well?

I recently learned that Dopamine, one of the key hormones we produce, gets triggered each time we have a sense of accomplishment, which can actually make us addicted to checking things off our lists because it makes us feel good physiologically!

I am a little releived to know my weird habit of adding things to my list that weren’t originally on it just so I can check it off is actually not that uncommon. The sense of accomplishment you get when you check something off your list gives your body a little zap of dopamine.

But the benefits from oxytocin–the hormone released at childbirth, nursing and every time we hug someone– actually last longer and has the ability to reduce addictive behaviors like overworking, shopping, or any other pattern used to get a shot of dopamine.

Isn’t that interesting?  If on your path to check off your next big accomplishment you spend more time connecting with co-workers, shaking hands, hugging, and being in relationship you will actually get the benefit of the dopamine at the end of the journey AND a wonderful happy feeling along the way from oxytocin.

“Don’t worry your life away waiting for the elusive prize at journey’s end. The journey is the prize.”

– Marsha Mercant – Actor, Singer, and Writer

Are You Grateful for YOU?

You probably have been seeing things about gratitude in emails, Facebook posts, and every other venue possible.  It’s that time of year.  And while being reminded to give thanks is useful, when it is so commercialized it can sometimes stay at the surface – “Oh yeah, I am grateful for my job, my spouse, my house, my family….”

My challenge to you is not just to take it deeper, but also to point your gratitude in the direction you rarely remember to do—YOU!  Every day for this next month invest five minutes listing or journalling all the things you are grateful for about yourself.  Oh I know, we have been conditioned to be grateful for everyone and everything else, but not ourselves. Find something about you to praise, today. You might risk being considered egotistic or worse narcissistic! Yet, you will find you have infinitely more gratitude for others when you are grateful for yourself.

Let me know what surprises you find in this exercise (you will), what gems you uncover about yourself (they are many) AND what starts to shift in your outer world as you start to recognize your worth and value in it (it will).

Please share your surprise finds on my Facebook Page. We are building a community of empowered women, share your wins for  us all to be boosted by them!