Hi, everyone!!! I pray that you are all well and that your day has been good! I know mine has! Every day that God gives me is a good one! I pray that is your experience too!

I know that it’s often hard to wake up each day feeling joyful but I’m here tonight to give you a couple of tips on how to be sure that you wake to each morning with hope in your heart. There really are things that you can do to make sure that you have a good day. The kind of day you have is not just happenstance. It’s a choice! That’s the GOOD NEWS!

Many people believe that they will have either a good or bad day based on their circumstances, but this isn’t the way that it has to be. We CAN CHOOSE what kind of day we are going to have regardless of our circumstances. It really is a matter of your mindset. If you choose to look at what might go wrong, you choose to keep yourself on the defense throughout the day. If you’ve ever dealt with someone who is constantly defensive, and we all have, you know that it is a tiresome task. As hard as it may be to believe, dealing with defensiveness is tiring, not only for the person who is experiencing the blows of the attitudes that come with it, but it also drains every drop of energy from the person who has to keep up the guard. I don’t know about you, but I never really thought about that way. It makes sense though. How draining would it be to constantly feel that you have to fight every person and every word that comes your way?

I’m here to offer you some hope. Only one person gets to choose whether you are happy or unhappy. That person is you. Joy is a state of mind. I want to share a couple of things with you that I do to make sure that I KEEP my joy. I, often, tell friends, clients, and anyone else I think might need to hear it that no man can steal your joy except you give it to him. You wouldn’t hand someone your wallet with your cash in it. Would you? Of course not. Well, your peace of mind is much more valuable!! Hold on to your peace at ALL costs. You control your words and actions and a you will remain in control of your own joy.

Here are a couple of things that I do that truly help me to hold tightly to the joy that I possess. Let me tell you, joy is MUCH easier to hold onto than it is to get back once you lose it.

The first thing I’d like to share with you that I try to do to stay joyful is that I work to stay as close to God as possible. I keep His Word forever on my lips and in my heart and mind. I continually keep a dialogue going with my Savior throughout every day and every night. He WANTS us to be joyful!! If we stay close to Him, then He will help us to keep our joy in our possession. To do this, we must talk to Him often, repent continually, and strive every moment to obey His commands. Keeping His Word in our hearts will make that doable as we lean on Him for direction, strength, wisdom, and understanding.

The second way that we can work to be sure to begin each day with the joy that we want to maintain is to take care of ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Be sure to eat and sleep as healthily as possible. If you’re not nourished or rested, then your defenses will be down and you will have less control over your emotions. While you are taking care of your physical health, you should consistently be paying close attention to what you are thinking about. This might sound silly, but you can choose what you allow in your mind. Now, don’t get me wrong. You may not be able to stop thoughts from popping into your mind, but only YOU can decide how long you will think about it. The more quickly you replace an undesirable thought with a desirable one, the easier it will be to keep the negative thinking under control. If you struggle with this skill, then I highly encourage you to seek professional help. That help may come in the form of a life coach or therapist. I, personally, have exercises that I implement with my clients that I find to be very effective at helping to learn to control what a person is consistently thinking.

I hope that this has given you some food for thought. I can assure you that working on refining your thought life will prove to be valuable in your quest for happiness. There is NO substitute for this step to achieving lasting joy. Don’t hesitate to start working on these skills. I can promise you that you will wonder why you waited so long!!

Thanks for joining me and I look forward to meeting again soon. If I can help you to find the lasting joy that God longs for you to have, then I pray that you will get a hold of me. I, truly, believe that, in addition to an intimate walk with God, taking control of your thought life is one of the most important ingredients to living a Godly and joyful life.

Many blessings!!

Nikki Hodson

Owner/Christian Life Coach

Nikki Jordan Life Coaching