How to become a trucker, or keep truckin’, or something about trucks

It’s Guest Post Wednesday. All Groan Up welcomes Courtney Johnston. Courtney is the creator of The Rule Breaker’s Club, a corner of the web all about being happy and living a fabulous life. She diligently studies psychology, writes, and daydreams about Paris all from her home in Dexter, Michigan.

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Before I get to the truck thing, I’d like to state a universal truth that you may not know about:

Every so often, you’re allowed to have a grumpy day.

You know, those days like these ones. Click on that link and read the hilarious cartoon from Hyperbole and a Half, or else risk taking your life too seriously.

Here’s the deal: Stupid, annoying, impossibly unfair things happen. At least it sure seems that way.

Your grumpy the-world-is-out-to-get-me feeling is totally valid. Don’t let some Pollyanna tell you otherwise. She can go toot someone else’s horn while riding a donkey on a mountain. Just go with me on that one.

So feel free to sit, grumble, and hate kittens for a while. Be irrational. Lash out. Do whatever you’ve gotta do.

And then suck it up and keep truckin’.

Because that’s what happy, successful, risk-taking winners do. And truckers, too. They fail (a lot), and then they keep on going down the open road. You really think that driving is fun all of the time? No, but there’s a destination, and you can bet your bag of self-pity that a trucker will always arrive at his destination.

A dream is a dream is a dream. Martin Luther King Jr. would not be very happy if you let go of yours because you got denied for a credit card, or some curse word of an evil human cut you off in the left turn lane, or your mom won’t give you anymore money for rent.

We all have bad days. The successful among us are those who get up and keep going.

Here are 3 things that you can do to get back on that horse and ride up the mountain of victory:

(1) Read 10 pages of something inspirational.

Some of my favorite inspirational books are:

Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill

Wisdom of the Ages, by Dr. Wayne Dyer

The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin

(2) Spend time with other human beings

This isn’t so much about talking about your problems (which a trucker would never do) but more so about social contact.

Consider the fact that joining a group that meets monthly raises happiness as much as doubling your income. Can we agree that searching for fun groups at Meetup.com is a whole lot easier than applying for jobs?

(3) Write yourself a gratitude letter.

The idea here is that we spend more time focusing on lack and not enough time focusing on abundance. Spend a few minutes writing down everything that you are grateful for. You can start with something as simple as, “I’m breathing”.

If your prolonged grumpiness makes you feel like you don’t have enough of something in your life, this is a fabulous exercise, and is even supported by positive psychologists! Tuck it in a drawer and pull it out whenever you’re feeling blue.

Let’s keep truckin’!

Photo Credit: Identity Photogr@phy

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