Most people seem to think happiness is elusive and we know this by the words that come out of their mouths. Often times you’ll hear people say things like, “Why me?” or “Why can’t I just catch a break?” or “I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water”…I’ve said all these things and more in my lifetime and have heard countless others voice them as well.
At some point along the journey I started realizing some rather invaluable things about people and about life, and why we shower ourselves with all the negativity. But first, let’s cover the three things you can do:
1) No matter what, NOBODY is better or worse than you, so stop caring SO much about what others think of you…live YOUR life.
2) Stop being so damn hard on yourself…nobody is perfect!
3) Remember that life is short, so each moment is even shorter…will this matter in 20 years?
These three things may seem simple to some and difficult to others, but they are necessary for each of us. The nice thing about these three things is that every one of us already knows them…we just struggle to implement. And no wonder, we are surrounded by naysayers and doomsday groupies…if there was a bonus number four to the list above it would have to be stay away from the negative. Negativity is a disease!!
I promise you this, if you start taking legitimate action toward the words above, your life WILL change. Life is 100% choices, and with baby steps (which is how I continue to march down my pathway toward my ideal life) you can conquer those things that prevent you from living that “every day is Friday” or “every day is a vacation” kind of life.
*Side Note: I am not a big fan of all the blog posts that offer lists that will make you happy or wealthy over night…so I am being a hypocrite by posting this list, but I believe in the items mentioned!!
Related articles
- Preventing Happiness (matthewliberty.com)
Happiness is a state of mind. You can’t work for it. No one can gift you with it. You just have to decide for yourself to turn off the tap flowing with all of the daily droplets of life: i.e. problems,issues, responsibilities, etc. to breathe and help regain a more positive perspective. This group (I will include myself and you Matt) just gets caught up in things until a built in mechanism says ENOUGH! This is the give yourself a break group.
But some people do not want to be happy, no matter how much they babble on about not catching a break, etc. They unconsciously (or perhaps consciously?) set up road blocks to happiness in order to revel in their bad luck. They were probably the kids who decided any attention is better than no attention. Or maybe they learned the behavior from watching a parent or an older brother or sister get attention with their babble. Their negatively IS a disease!
So what do you do? Try and associate with more of the first group and steer clear of the second one. And if you can’t steer clear, recognize it for what it is and don’t get sucked in the negativity vaccuum.
Great post Matt!
Thanks Cheri…and I would tend to agree that there is a group of people that sabotage their own happiness, but I tend to still think there is an innate desire for contentment (happiness) in everyone…although that definition may be different for each individual.
Even though that innate desire is there, some people still ruthlessly go out of their way to prevent for themselves while others may just be lost in the abyss of negativity not knowing how to get out. It is certainly an odd dynamic…I am sure we could talk about it for hours over a glass of wine!!
Cheers and thank you again!!