Happiness isn't just a fleeting feeling; it's a daily practice grounded in science. Studies show that when we align with our core values—autonomy, connection, and purpose—we activate our greatest potential. It’s about choosing to show up, being fully present, and letting joy be the natural byproduct of living authentically.
Embrace your freedom to create, your power to connect deeply, and the pursuit of your highest self. True happiness is self-determined, and it’s something we cultivate with intention, every single day. What do you have inside of you that is yearning to happen? Have that vision and pursue it with determination.
#ChooseJoy #LiveOnPurpose #PursuitOfHappiness #SelfDeterminationTheory #MindfulLiving
(upbeat music) - Hey, it's Dr. James Rouse. Welcome to the Change Agents Podcast. This is the place where personal growth meets human performance. Join me and the Change Agents community where inspired individuals unite to ignite their full potential and create extraordinary mastery. - Good morning, it's James. So good to see you today. Thank you for your time. Thank you for energy. I'm deeply grateful. To have the honor and the blessing of laying eyes on you and I do hope and pray that this message finds you and all the people that you love, peaceful, thriving and very, very well. Oh my gosh, do I want this message to land in your mind so you really fully understand it? And then I want this to drop into your heart so you'll fully allow it to work for you. This message is all about the science and the practice and the pursuit of happiness. Now, sometimes when I hear the word happiness, I discount it a little bit. Not because I don't want to be happy and have happiness in my life. I think sometimes it gets over, it gets over done. Like it's just seen sometimes like, we don't treat it with a level of reverence that it truly needs to be spoken to and practice that. And that's why I want to share this message with you today. I had my first experience with this particular research back in the 80s when I was in grad school and it really, really affected my life in ways I can't even put into words. It makes me emotional because I remember when I fully understood what this was doing in my life, as I was learning about it, it stopped me to really look at the power of how self-care, self-love, self-compassion, self-acceptance truly can be for anyone and everyone regardless of where they are in their life. This is about the self-determination theory, something that actually started back in the mid 70s, but really started gaining real scientific vigor and verification in the 80s. And it's really all about how and the self-determination theory, it's really built in this idea that we experience happiness when we are pursuing something that we value, something that means a lot to us, something that we see and go, oh my gosh, I want this experience and I'm gonna do what it takes. I will overcome limiting beliefs. Whatever's in the way of this, I will push through. I will not allow myself to have this pursuit of this particular vision, mission, goal, objective, whatever it is. It's all about these things that we talk to each and every day here in the tree house, one of which is competence. Having something that you really start to learn and then integrate into the fabric of who you are. This literally becomes something that you practice, practice, practice until you feel a sense of faith and ownership in it. From there, you have a commitment. This commitment idea with self-determination theory is that you do not not work at this. You do not give up when things get hard. You continue to keep on keeping on in your commitment to your highest self, which is connected to this mission and purpose of happiness is the thing that you connect to over and over again, which keeps this commitment alive regardless of what's happening around you. And lastly, you connected to agency. You see that this pursuit of whatever it is that you deem meaningful gives you independence. It gives you an opportunity to see yourself truly honoring what your soul is calling you to do, what your heart is knowing that you love to do in your mind feels peace when you do it. This happened to me in my first experience of understanding it when I was, gosh, I was a few couple, maybe just about two and a half years into my sobriety journey, which began nearly 40 years ago. And I was struggling. I was really looking at family of origin stories. I was looking at my own limiting beliefs. I was walking a razor's edge every single day, wondering if I'd fall back into old patterns, start getting back into my addiction because emotionally my instability didn't know whether or not I had what it takes. And then I learned about self-determination theory and it really connected this idea of I wanna be happy. I wanna experience happiness. If I could have predictable happiness, would I absolutely fall in love with the idea whether it was sobriety, finishing grad school, going on to become a doctor, more importantly having a phenomenal marriage to the love of my life, raising amazing kids, having a community of my life like this. This is all my self-determination theory. This experience of my life today is about having pursuit of goals, mission, vision, that means everything to me. So my question is to you today. What do you have inside of you that is yearning to happen? What is your mission? What is your vision? What is your purpose? What do you wake up in the morning yearning to create your life? If you want to have more happiness, trust the science of self-determination theory, choose that goal, choose that mission, grab that vision and pursue it. Work towards it with diligence, with determination, with commitment, contentment in the pursuit of agency. It works, it works. All right, God, I get so passionate about things like this. I hope this found its way to you. And I hope you know how much you mean to me as part of my self-determination theory. You are part of it. This tree house is part of it. And all the things that bring me to life are part of it. Thank you. Much love. All blessings. Bye for now. Thanks for listening. Together, I believe we can make a difference in our own lives and the lives of those around us. Don't forget to subscribe, share and leave a review to help us spread positive energy across the planet. Until next time, keep shining your life and being the change you want to see and be in the world. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (gentle music)
