Tomorrow May Never Come. (Just. Get. Started.)

It has been months since I have written a post to my Happier by Choice blog, when my goal was originally to write every week. Not writing has been so easy, and it has gotten easier as each week has passed. It eventually became something I basically forgot.

Starting something, anything, is often the hardest part. Not getting started one week, of course, became not finishing, which made it easier to not start the next week, which got me into a cycle of not doing something that I had decided was important to me.

Isn't that the way most important and at-least-a-little-difficult things are?

Eating well/getting in shape is another great example. At various points in my life, I have literally gone many months saying "Tomorrow I am going to to start eating healthily; but today I am going to have candy and soda."

I have also said "tomorrow I will" about specific items on my daily to-do list, about exercising, about cutting down on TV-watching, and about many other things in my life.

In every case, the act of not getting started has been the key impediment to succeeding. In business, I have long said  -- and this is absolutely one of my personal soapboxes -- that the number one reason most businesses fail is because they never get started at all.

Starting something can be so hard, but the fact is that starting is almost always totally in our control. Then, once we get started, moving forward in one way or another tends to be much easier -- like the fact that I am about to finish this blog post, after working for less than a half hour.

Getting started allows us to start building forward momentum; it allows us to start seeing progress, which definitely makes everything easier. It allows us to start seeing and solving problems. Sometimes, getting started let's us see that the activity is something not really worth doing, which allows us to move on and start something else.

If something is worth doing, we can't let "tomorrow" stand in our way. Waiting for tomorrow is the best way to make sure tomorrow never comes. Not starting is a path to stagnation, one of the surest paths to unhappiness.

Just. Get. Started.

I Admire Your Ability to Fail So Much and Still Be So Positive

My mother totally cracks me up sometimes. She possesses the most insane mixture of negativity and supportiveness. Seriously. She is one of the most negative people I know, and one of the most supportive. It is largely thanks to her that I am as confident as I am today, and I am forever in her debt for that. Confidence breeds happiness.

Probably my favorite thing that my mother has ever said to me came just in the last few years. I was home for a holiday and we were just hanging out. As we talked about nothing particularly important, she said (paraphrased), "You know Sean, you really amaze me. You try so many things that don't succeed, and you just get back up and start something new without hardly giving it a thought, and you are always so poitive about whatever you are doing."

Isn't that hilarious? It was like some kind of weird, backhanded compliment, but I know my mother and really all she meant was the compliment part. She admires my ability to try something, have it not work out, and just move right on to the next thing, not letting the failure of the first thing bum me out or slow me down.

That is what entrepreneurs do. We mostly don't care about failure. We know that we are going to fail, possibly even more often than we are going to succeed. The key is to learn from failure and to never stop moving, to keep trying and building and innovating. It is this process of failing and moving forward that makes it possible to do great things. Failure, in fact, us an essential part of real success.

I think that this may be one of the most important keys to long term happiness -- realizing that failure is an essential part of success and focusing on moving forward, no matter what failure or success we have. Train yourself to internalize this, to get your happiness from the process instead of the specific result, and you will be far happier than most.

14 Thoughts on Being Happier by Choice

Alright, so maybe this is cheating just a little bit, but this post is a collection of 14 of my daily Facebook/Twitter posts about happiness, gathered together for the first time. My goal is to keep doing the daily posts for as long as I can, so I'll post collections from time to time. You can always find the original posts on Twitter at #HappierByChoice.

Have a happy day!

1. Life is a daily opportunity to be better and to create our own happiness.
2. Sometimes I sit and create lists of things that make me happy, as a reminder.*
3. When I'm down, a great strategy is to get busy, which switches gears in my brain and eventually I get happy again.
4. Momentum in life is pretty much everything. Don’t lean in to a down mood, do something active to change momentum.
5. The more you can train yourself to not care about what other people think of you, the happier you will be.
6. The search of happiness is just about the most important thing, because happiness breeds happiness, and happiness makes the world better.
7. I have never experienced, nor even heard of, any tough situation that was improved with unhappiness.
8. Friends should be one of our greatest sources of happiness. If they aren’t, make new ones.
9. Happiness based on the external can be elusive. Lasting happiness comes from inside.
10. It is nobody else’s job to make us happy.
11. For some, getting happy takes a lot of work. It is worth it.
12. Aren’t you just happier when you are doing something and being productive?
13. To shake the blues, help someone — spend real time volunteering for a charity.
14. I’m not very churchy, but church offers so many opportunities to get happy.

Something New Every Day, 2017

Here are some keys to happiness -- find ways to challenge yourself; stay busy; and do fun things. Bringing these things together, I have decided that for 2017 I am going to do at least one new thing every day. Some of the things will be pretty big -- such as creating a type of charity fundraiser with wheelchair-user participants -- and others will be very small -- such as having lunch with someone new or getting a pedicure. Everything will be new for me, though and i is going to be a very big year.

Creating the list turned out to be pretty difficult, in part because it turns out that I have done an awful lot of things in my life. I finished a preliminary list, though, with lots of help. I was able to just think of many activities; many came from Internet lists I found; and others came from friends, either in person or in response to a Facebook post.

In the end, some of the activities will change as I choose to replace them with others, or as life happens and I do things that are totally unexpected at this point. My friend Kim Yates -- who, by far, contributed the most items to the list -- pointed out that my list of new things will probably end up being much longer than 365, as the act of pursuing the list leads me to do lots of other new things.

I am excited about see how it goes, and finding things to be excited about is another key to happiness. It is going to be a great year.

Here is the list as it stands right this minute. It is in alphabetical order and I plan to do the things in the order that seems to make sense, as I make my way through the year, making changes to the list as the mood strikes me.

1.     100 sit-ups (as a 46-47 year old with MS)

2.     50 push-ups (as a 46-47 year old with MS)

3.     Acupuncture

4.     Add Something Useful to Wikipedia

5.     After my purchase, e-mail Craig at Craig’s List

6.     Apply to appear on a game show

7.     Apply to be on a game show

8.     Attend a competitive eating contest

9.     Attend a concert for a band/musician I have not heard of

10.  Attend a poetry slam

11.  Attend a Special Olympics event

12.  Attend the Boone Hospital Foundation Gala

13.  Attend Unbound Book Festival in Columbia

14.  Bake a Giant Cookie

15.  Bake cookies/donuts/treats and deliver them to the staff at an elementary school

16.  Be a part of a TV show audience

17.  Become an ordained minister

18.  Board meeting for an organization I do not know well

19.  Boil a Live Lobster

20.  Braid someone’s hair

21.  Bring baked goods to a fire station to say thank you

22.  Bring baked goods to the police station to say thank you

23.  Buy a bow tie

24.  Buy a fedora

25.  Buy a first edition book I really like

26.  Buy a lottery ticket

27.  Buy a pair of Tom’s Shoes

28.  Buy life insurance

29.  Buy something from Victoria’s Secret

30.  Buy suspenders

31.  Buy/write/mail a truck stop postcard

32.  Celebrate my 47^th birthday

33.  Celebrate my 9^th anniversary with Leigh

34.  Celebrate my second anniversary at BBB

35.  Change a diaper

36.  Check the public campaign financing box on my tax form

37.  Color in an adult coloring book

38.  Complete an Online Class

39.  Complete one week of no cursing

40.  Contribute to a business on Kickstarter

41.  Contribute to an art project on Indiegogo

42.  Contribute to my high school

43.  Cook a Chinese meal

44.  Cook a vegan meal

45.  Cook a vegetarian meal

46.  Cook with a pressure cooker

47.  Create a “10 Days to Conquer Clutter” calendar and do it

48.  Create a digital photo tour of my most important places in Columbia

49.  Create a music video for the Web

50.  Create elaborate Easter eggs

51.  Crochet

52.  Cut up a whole chicken

53.  Design a piece of jewelry

54.  Design a toy and give away on instructables.com

55.  Do a Groupon

56.  Do a podcast

57.  Do a pop-up restaurant

58.  Do a TED Talk

59.  Do an escape room

60.  Do an Uber

61.  Do origami

62.  Do something nice for Leigh that I have never done

63.  Do something nice for my mom that I have never done

64.  Do Sudoku

65.  Do that thing I have been thinking about doing for Leigh

66.  Donate blood

67.  Donate books to the Ronald McDonald House

68.  Donate some of my favorite books to Battle High School library

69.  Donate to a podcast I listen to

70.  Donate to an endangered species

71.  Draw a comic strip

72.  Drink Dom Perignon

73.  Drink herbal tea

74.  Drink Mezcal

75.  Eat a cronut

76.  Eat a Raw Diet for a Day

77.  Eat at Farmhaus in SL (2016 James Beard Semi-Finalist)

78.  Eat at Le Bernardin

79.  Eat at Port Fonda in KC (2016 James Beard Semi-Finalist)

80.  Eat at Sidney Street Café in SL (2016 James Beard Semi-Finalist)

81.  Eat Durian

82.  Eat for a day without utensils

83.  Eat geoduck

84.  Eat Pho

85.  Eat Poi

86.  Eat Poutine

87.  Eat shad roe

88.  Fast for one day

89.  File a Freedom of Information Request

90.  Fill out a FAFSA

91.  Find an uplifting news story from the past that struck me. Contact the principal players to show thanks.

92.  Finish the prerequisites for an MBA

93.  Fire a Paintball Gun

94.  Fly first class

95.  Fly in a helicopter

96.  Fly in a hot-air balloon

97.  Get a facial

98.  Get a letter published in Fast Company

99.  Get a letter published in Inc.

100.        Get a letter published in Vanity Fair

101.        Get a massage

102.        Get a professional shave from a barber

103.        Get a sword cane

104.        Get Leigh to teach me how to make cauliflower crust pizza

105.        Get my own radio show

106.        Get on Instagram

107.        Get on Whatsapp

108.        Get published in Huffington post

109.        Get rid of three things I never use.

110.        Give Leigh some money to use for her students

111.        Give to a charity I have never given to before

112.        Give to Comogives.com

113.        Go Geocaching

114.        Go in an Inside Skydive Simulator

115.        Go on one of Cindy Mustard’s Columbia tours

116.        Go one day without speaking

117.        Go to a beer tasting

118.        Go to a Boone County Commission meeting

119.        Go to a Boxing Match

120.        Go to a car race

121.        Go to a Columbia Entertainment Company performance

122.        Go to a high school band concert or theater play where I don't know any of the students

123.        Go to a Jewish service

124.        Go to a Muslim service

125.        Go to a Renaissance fair

126.        Go to a rodeo

127.        Go to a wine tasting

128.        Go to an event at Show-Me State Games

129.        Go to an MS support group

130.        Go to Bogart’s Smokehouse, St. Louis

131.        Go to Bonne Terre Mines

132.        Go to Bothwell Mansion

133.        Go to Cement Land (SL)

134.        Go to Citizen Jane Film Festival

135.        Go to City Museum, St. Louis

136.        Go to Citygarden, St. Louis

137.        Go to Columbia Cemetery

138.        Go to Glore Psychiatric Museum (St. Joseph)

139.        Go to Gram & Dun, Kansas City

140.        Go to Ha Ha Tonka Castle Ruins (Camdenton)

141.        Go to Jim the Wonder Dog Memorial Park, Marshall

142.        Go to Johnson’s Shut-Ins (Lesterville)

143.        Go to Justus Drugstore, Smithville

144.        Go to Kansas City Workhouse

145.        Go to Laumeier Sculpture Park, Sunset Hills

146.        Go to Leila’s Hair Museum (Independence)

147.        Go to Mid-Mo Pridefest

148.        Go to Orchids & Art, Columbia

149.        Go to Rick Bridge Memorial State Park

150.        Go to Rockbridge State Park

151.        Go to St. Louis Aquarium

152.        Go to the American Jazz Museum in KC

153.        Go to The Block, Webster Groves

154.        Go to the Clinton Museum

155.        Go to the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis

156.        Go to the Eisenhower Presidential Library

157.        Go to The Fountain on Locust, St. Louis

158.        Go to the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival

159.        Go to The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange, Kansas City

160.        Go to the wax museum, St. Louis

161.        Go to the World Chess Hall of Fame

162.        Go to Touch, Springfield

163.        Go to Welch Springs Hospital Ruins

164.        Grill a pizza

165.        Grow a plant I have not grown (some flower in a pot)

166.        Have a Romantic Dinner on a Rooftop

167.        Have a tech free day

168.        Help Leigh buy a new (to us) car

169.        Hire a private chef to cook in our home

170.        Hot stone massage

171.        Invent a new food/recipe

172.        Invent my Own Candy

173.        Invite someone new to lunch

174.        Invite someone new to lunch

175.        Invite someone new to lunch

176.        Invite someone new to lunch

177.        Invite someone new to lunch

178.        Invite someone new to lunch

179.        Invite someone new to lunch

180.        Invite someone new to lunch

181.        Invite someone new to lunch

182.        Invite someone new to lunch

183.        Knit something

184.        Learn 10 new things by clicking the random articles button on Wikipedia

185.        Learn a magic trick

186.        Learn basic HTML

187.        Learn how to juggle

188.        Learn how to make sushi

189.        Learn how to play three guitar chords

190.        Learn proper knife skills

191.        Learn some sign language

192.        Learn to butcher an animal

193.        Learn to knit

194.        Learn to make crepes

195.        Learn to meditate

196.        Learn to tie a bow tie

197.        Learn to tie a noose

198.        Learn to write my name in Chinese

199.        Learn who my spirit animal is

200.        Leave a $10 under the windshield wiper of a random car in a parking lot

201.        Leave a 100% Tip for a Server

202.        Leave a thank you note for my mail carrier

203.        Leave encouraging notes in self-help books for others to find

204.        Leave money in a vending machine for someone

205.        List 20 things I like about someone. Now give the list to that person and make their day.

206.        Lose 26 pounds in one year

207.        Make a chocolate soufflé

208.        Make a how-to video for YouTube

209.        Make a Kiva.com Loan

210.        Make a list of 100 things that I am grateful for

211.        Make a list of 5 of the top people who have influenced me and write them letters

212.        Make a list of 50 places I would like to visit in my lifetime

213.        Make a list of charitable organization I want to create

214.        Make a list of companies I want to start

215.        Make a list of interesting charitable fundraisers I want to create

216.        Make a list of ways that I waste time

217.        Make a Pavlova

218.        Make a time capsule

219.        Make an A in my first MBA class

220.        Make an infused vodka

221.        Make beer

222.        Make deep-fried Mars bars

223.        Make ebelskiver

224.        Make homemade ice cream sandwiches

225.        Make homemade mozzarella cheese

226.        Make kimchee

227.        Make Kombucha

228.        Make my mom’s coffee ice cream pie

229.        Make pasta

230.        Make some predictions for the next few years, then mull a bit and edit them, and then put the piece of paper away until later and see what happens.

231.        Make wine (at Serenity Valley)

232.        Manicure

233.        Pedicure

234.        Milk a cow

235.        Name a star

236.        Observe surgery

237.        Obsess over a randomly selected country and write an opinion paper about one of their current issues

238.        Open a savings account for that thing I want to do

239.        Order off the menu at Chick-Fil-A

240.        Order off the menu at Chipotle

241.        Order off the menu at Panera

242.        Order off the menu at Starbucks

243.        Participate in Earth Hour

244.        Pick a random name and send them something nice

245.        Plant a tree

246.        Play a modern computer game

247.        Police car ride along

248.        Post my digital photo tour on Facebook

249.        Prepare a meal based on Marcus Samuelsson’s recipes

250.        Prepare a molecular gastronomy meal

251.        Prepare a traditional Honduran meal

252.        Prepare an Indian meal

253.        Produce a movie short

254.        Publish a book (not self-publish)

255.        Put vanilla pudding in a mayonnaise jar and eat it in public

256.        Read Columbia’s “One Read” book

257.        Read Kahlil Gibran

258.        Read only the last chapter of a book

259.        Read something by Joan Didion

260.        Read something by Pablo Neruda

261.        Read to a group of children

262.        Register for an MBA program

263.        Reiki

264.        Reupholster something

265.        Review a book on Amazon

266.        Review something I like on Yelp!

267.        Ride a Greyhound to another city

268.        Ride Mo-X

269.        Ride the city bus

270.        Roast somebody

271.        Roll-A-Thon

272.        Run a newspaper ad with a positive message

273.        See a live production of Rocky Horror Picture Show

274.        See a musician I have not seen in the “We Always Swing” jazz series

275.        See Notorious, by Alfred Hitchcock (one of Ebert’s 10 Best Movies)

276.        See Raging Bull (one of Ebert’s 10 Best Movies)

277.        See The Awakening statue, Chesterfield

278.        See The Third Man (one of Ebert’s 10 Best Movies)

279.        See the world’s largest fork, Springfield

280.        See the world’s largest rocking chair, Cuba

281.        Sell something on Craig’s List

282.        Send a care package to an active military person

283.        Send a Message in a Bottle

284.        Send a net to help stop malaria

285.        Send a virtual thank you note to someone through the State Farm Thanks for Being There program, which will donate to Fisher House for each thank you sent

286.        Send Donald Trump a birthday card

287.        Send someone a big rubber ball through the mail

288.        Send treats to the BBB office

289.        Shoot an automatic weapon

290.        Shop at the Asian grocery

291.        Shop on Black Friday

292.        Souvie something

293.        Spend a day alone, in silence

294.        Spend time reading Buddhist Sacred Texts: The Sutras

295.        Spend time reading Hindu Sacred Texts: The Vedas

296.        Spend time reading Jewish Sacred Texts: The Talmud

297.        Spend time reading the Koran

298.        Stay in the Tiger Hotel

299.        Stay overnight in a homeless shelter

300.        Submit a poem to a national publication

301.        Take a bartending class

302.        Take a photography class

303.        Take a train to another city

304.        Tell a little girl she looks smart

305.        Text only in emoticons

306.        That thing where you are in a big tank of salt water

307.        Tie a fly

308.        Tip someone at a place I normally wouldn’t tip

309.        Treat a cough by rubbing Vicks VapoRub all over my feet and put on socks

310.        Try absinthe

311.        Try Air BNB

312.        Try needlepoint

313.        Try to create no trash/waste for a day

314.        Try to do a YouTube meme the kids are doing

315.        Try to get tickets for the Tonight Show

316.        Try VR

317.        Tweet something @ a celebrity I don't like

318.        Two laps around the Cosmo park trail, in my wheelchair

319.        Using dice, choose a page in a dictionary, scroll down to first noun, do a project related to that word

320.        Visit 2leep.com

321.        Visit attackofthecute.com

322.        Visit Boone County Olive oil on 9th Street and learn about proper way to taste olive oil and identify hemisphere it originated from

323.        Visit brotips.com

324.        Visit Bur Oak

325.        Visit dearblankpleaseblank.com

326.        Visit failblog.org

327.        Visit fark.com

328.        Visit fmylife.com

329.        Visit iwastesomuchtime.com

330.        Visit lifehacker.com

331.        Visit Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum

332.        Visit oddee.com

333.        Visit shitbrix.com

334.        Visit sploid.gizmodo.com

335.        Visit thechive.com

336.        Visit thisissand.com

337.        Visit thisiswhyimbroke.com

338.        Visit totallylookslike.com

339.        Visit truuconfessions.com

340.        Visit wherecoolthingshappen.com

341.        Visit Wilson's Creek National Battlefield

342.        Visit zergnet.com

343.        Volunteer to judge a high school speech/debate tournament

344.        Watch a silent movie

345.        Watch one of the Housewives shows

346.        Watch The Prince of Arabia

347.        Watch the Sunrise & Sunset in one Day

348.        Wear a boutonnière on an ordinary day

349.        Wear a kilt

350.        Wear makeup

351.        Win or settle a law suit

352.        Write a children’s story

353.        Write a detailed zombie apocalypse plan

354.        Write a Letter to an active military member

355.        Write a letter to an elementary or high school teacher who influenced me and thank them

356.        Write a letter to my future self

357.        Write a letter to the President

358.        Write a letter with a quill

359.        Write a list of 10+ life lessons

360.        Write a list of 100 things that make me happy

361.        Write a rap

362.        Write a song

363.        Write a Thank you Letter to a Company that Treated me well

364.        Write my will

365.        Write off part of a bad debt owed us to get the tax benefit