and a life that you love. It’s Q&A Tuesday, folks. This Q&A Tuesday question comes from

Miss Cynthia and she writes:

“Marie, how do I deal with the guilt? Let me explain. I recently shifted my business

focus to an area which I have strong skills and which I greatly enjoy. During work the

other day I found myself very, very happy. That stopped me in my tracks and suddenly

I was full of guilt. Whether it came from someone in my family, my nanny, my school

teachers, or just being raised female in this society, I have a lot of baggage around enjoying

my work. If this new path works out I could conceivably not only make enough to support

myself but to allow my overworked, generous, and supportive spouse to shift to a less stressful

career too. I find myself wondering, with so many people in the world forced, many literally,

to do work they hate just to survive, what gives me the right to pursue work that feeds

me mentally and spiritually as well as financially? Please help me get to a positive perspective

on this so that I can move forward. Your fan, Cynthia in Virginia.”

Cynthia, this is a beautiful question. You have a lot of empathy, you’re a very caring

person. That means you actually give a damn about the welfare of others. That is a beautiful

thing. But, and this is a big but, obviously, as you shared, this guilt thing is tripping

you up and if you don't get it handled it can really screw up your happiness and your

success. Now, I have a few ideas that can help.

Number one is your misery doesn't serve anyone and it certainly doesn't help those people

who don't have many options right now in terms of their livelihood. It’s not like you being

miserable at work or feeling guilty over loving your work is somehow creating more work options

because it’s not.

You need to wake up and break this association that you have with guilt and it being useful.

Guilt is not useful, it’s wasteful, it’s indulgent, and it does not make you a better

or more caring person.

You’re assuming that misery loves company and that may not be true. Give them some credit

that they don't want more people suffering alongside of them. And also give some credit

to the people that don't have the options that you have but they make the best of it.

Basically it’s time to wake up and smell the happiness coffee. In fact, you know what?

I’m gonna have myself a happy-chino right now. This is with almond milk, right?

Number two, you can’t give away what you don't have. So if you want to make a difference

in this world on any level you can’t give that which you don't have for yourself. And

when it comes to the important things like love and compassion and happiness, you have

to cultivate that within so then you can extend it to others.

Number three, happiness is not a limited resource. So unlike resources like time or water, there’s

no limited quantity in happiness in the world, so stop thinking that you’re going to use

it all up. In fact, the more happy you are in your work the more it opens up that possibility

for others. And I like this idea so much that we are making it a Tweetable.

“Happiness is not a limited resource, so help yourself and there’ll be plenty left

for everyone else.”

Number four, who is anyone to be happy? So, Cynthia, in your question you wondered out

loud, “What gives me the right to pursue work that feeds me mentally, spiritually,

and financially?” And I say what gives anyone that right? I mean, what if anyone who’s

ever made a significant, positive impact said that and what if we all said that? We would

all be like, great, let’s all be miserable at work. Yay. Thanks, Cynthia.

Just kidding.

Number five, you wanna turn your guilt into giving. So this may be the only redeeming

quality of guilt in this situation. So if you don't have an active practice of giving

back to others, whether that’s money or time or mentoring, or your community, or whatever,

you need to get that practice going and make it a permanent part of your life. So this

isn’t about relieving guilt, this is about expressing the wholeness of who you are as

a human being and living that fully in your life.

One thing that I’ve found to be true is the more you give, the more you live. That’s

why we have our change your life, change the world initiative.

Now, if this floats your boat, Cynthia, you need to come and join our Kiva lending team.

It’s awesome. Little link is below. This way you can make a direct impact on people’s

livelihoods all over the world. So, of course, I’m not attached to where or how you give,

but if inside you feel like you’re not doing enough right now I want you to turn your guilt

into heartfelt giving.

That was my A to your Q, Cynthia. I hope it helps. Now, I would love to hear from you.

Have you ever had happiness guilt? Do you ever feel guilty for being happy about something

when you know others don't have what you have? I would love to know how you deal with it.

Now, as always, the best discussions happen after the episode on MarieForleo.com, so please

come on over there and leave a comment now.

Did you enjoy this video? I hope so. If you did, subscribe and, of course, share it with

your friends. And if you want even more resources to create a business and life that you really

love plus some personal insights from me that I only get to talk about in email, come on

over to MarieForleo.com and sign up for email updates.

Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world really does need

that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I hope to see

you next time on MarieTV.