By Karen Stokes
Life coach, Dr. Stacia Pierce
Most people are not thriving in life, they’re merely surviving. There is the everyday stress about work, kids, and bills, and less time for fun. Does that sound like anyone you know or even yourself?
In a recent Harris poll, only one in three Americans say that they are happy. This year instead of New Year’s resolutions of losing weight or being more organized, a better option is to resolve to enjoy life.
Life coach, motivational speaker and author of the book “Enjoy Life,” Dr. Stacia Pierce has helped thousands of celebrities, entrepreneurs and everyday people achieve their goals and get out of their ruts.
“I was holding massive conferences which were called The Enjoy Life conferences with about 4000 ladies,” said Dr. Pierce. “So many ladies were not really thriving in their life. Their life was about the work and about the kids. There were many who started coming to me who were in transition. Although the ladies enjoyed the conference, they said they needed more, so I went home and started to write the book.”
“I’ve written “Enjoy Life” to give you step-by-step instructions to extract the drudgery from your existence and add a little ‘play” to your day,’” said Dr. Pierce. “To deny yourself consistently of doing those things that bring you joy is self destructive and will eventually lead to resentment.”
The first advice Dr. Pierce shared in the book was to be intentional in what you do.
“With the whole Enjoy Life concept, to bring happiness, it has to be intentional, you have to make the decision first that, ‘I want to change, I want to enjoy my life,’” Dr. Pierce said.
“With the decision there needs to be a plan, you have to create a plan of action to enjoy life.”
“I put the plan in the book. If you follow the instructions, you will have a plan. Plan out what do you see yourself enjoying, and the end of the chapter so you can reflect,” said Dr. Pierce. “It’s almost what I would do with a client, it’s a coaching tool. What I found out is that sometimes people have intentions on making a plan, but never actually do it. So, every single chapter in the book has a vision page where you can paste down pictures of what you want your life to look like. There’s never been a book like this.”
The idea behind a vision page is when you surround yourself with images of who you want to be, where you want to live, or where you want to vacation, your life changes to match those images of what you desire. An example for the vision page would be if someone always wanted to live near the ocean they find a picture of a house near the ocean and paste it on the page so they can continuously see it.
Another suggestion Dr. Pierce shared was to try something new. Try new activities, new things to enjoy.
A final thought Dr. Pierce expressed was to keep a gratitude diary. Every night before going to bed she suggested writing one thing you were grateful for.
“Gratitude will change your attitude,” said Dr. Pierce.
To learn more tips on how to enjoy life, you can purchase “Enjoy Life” on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com or on Dr. Stacia Pierce’s website, Lifecoach2woman.com.