My wife recently sent me a link to a TED Talk presented by a courageous woman named Sarah Trimmer. During a five-year period, Ms. Trimmer lost both parents, got divorced, had both breasts removed because of breast cancer, had the cancer return two years later which necessitated chemotherapy and radiation treatments and then had her ovaries removed in an effort to prevent the cancer from returning again. To help herself get through these very tough times, she created a system called #startandendhappy. The idea was to start and end her day focusing on elevating her level of happiness. As she said in the talk, “When a person elevates their happiness, they build their mental strength and mental strength is what it takes to get you through the rough times.” To elevate her level of happiness, she starts and ends her days reciting and completing the following five phrases:
- Today I am grateful for…
- Today I helped someone by…
- Something that made me happy today was…
- Today I learned…
- Tomorrow I will…
What a great way to start and end our days. If you would like to view Ms. Trimmer’s entire talk (it’s only 12 minutes), here’s the link.