独家优惠奖金 100% 高达 1 BTC + 180 免费旋转

Happiness Is Not a Destination

Nearly every person on Earth values their own happiness, but our approach to being happy is often passive. We believe the actions we take in our lives will lead to happiness.

Happiness is often framed as a destination — a goal to work towards.

We think that true happiness will come to us based on accomplishments we make in our lives — once we reach a certain level on the corporate ladder, earn a certain amount of money, get to live a certain lifestyle.

The problem is that, by framing happiness as a goal to achieve, we are implicitly stating that we are not happy right now. Happiness is not a goal to work towards, it is a state of being we should all experience while we are working towards our life’s goals.

Here are four ways to achieve happiness in your daily life, regardless of accomplishment.

Actively expressing gratitude has been shown to have a positive impact on our happiness.

As Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at UC Davis, states, “By valuing and appreciating friends, oneself, situations, and circumstances, it focuses the mind on what an individual already has rather than something that’s absent and is needed.”

Here are two ways to express gratitude.

Call them. Send a letter…like, in the actual mail. Tell them to their face. Do whatever you need to. Outwardly expressing your gratitude brings joy to others and, in the process, yourself.

Living a life of purpose is a key to happiness. We need to know the work we are doing has more meaning than simply bringing home a paycheck.

My friend is an extremely successful engineer and one of the smartest and hardest working people you will ever meet. He has worked for several engineering companies since graduating with his Master’s, doing amazing work at each, and earning a very lucrative salary. He also has struggled with his own mental illness for the past several years.

He recently told me over the phone that he was planning on returning to school to earn his PhD. This was not extremely surprising — he is the type of person who seeks the highest level of knowledge in his field.

This may seem nonsensical to some. He has no formal education in any of these fields; he is leaving an extremely successful career path to essentially start over. But I have never heard him talk about engineering with the same passion as he spoke about this new path and the opportunity to have a larger impact on the world.

He said he was considering taking a year to make sure it was the right decision but I told him he must start immediately. I fully expect him to be enrolled at one of the best law schools in the country come Fall 2018 because that is where his passion lies — where he can make an impact, live a life of purpose, and find happiness.

Are you living a life of purpose or do you need to make changes to get there? Once you figure out what your life of purpose looks like, go make it happen. Even if it requires completely starting over.

We are often too focused on our end goal to appreciate the process and this diminishes our happiness. By focusing on the end of a path, we focus on how happy we will be once we get there but lose our sense of happiness in the moment. This is a lesson I learned from training to run marathons.

I first signed up to run a marathon with the end goal in mind. I pictured myself in much better shape and having an overwhelming sense of pride in my accomplishment.

I was focused on the end result.

But actually running the marathon (which took about 4.5 hours because I am a less-than-mediocre runner) was only a tiny, tiny percentage of the time that went into the process of actually training for the race.

A few weeks in, I was miserable.

That’s when I found a way to appreciate each run I took. Sure, I was getting in better shape and the race was going to be cool, but the runs also provided me a way to spend time alone, unplug, think deep thoughts, and challenge myself both mentally and physically.

With my growing appreciation of the process, the marathon turned into just another step in that process.

Happiness comes when we take the time to enjoy each step. Happiness is a roller coaster, full of ups and downs, not a party on the other side of a finish line.

Happiness is inherently internal. It is something the exists inside us and something we seek for ourselves.

But we can achieve our own happiness if we focus on its impact on those around us.

I immediately thought of personal benefits — I wanted a greater peace of mind, to live in the moment, to think more creatively.

But about 11 days in, the narrator prompted me to think about my motivation in a different way. He asked me to think about the impact my meditation would have on the people around me.

He asked me to empathize with those I spend my time with and to understand that a more present, more in the moment and focused me would directly benefit them.

What was amazing about this way of thinking? It motivated me 10X more than thinking about the benefits to myself. Soon, I found it easy to meditate every day as I thought about the benefits it would bring to those around me.

It works the same with finding happiness. Think about what a happy version of yourself does for the people around you — your significant other, friends, coworkers.

Empathizing with the people you spend time with makes it easier to invest the necessary time and energy to be the happiest version of yourself every day.

Be purposeful about how you express gratitude.

Find and live a life of purpose.

Recognize that you need to find enjoyment in the process, not just the end result.

Spend time thinking about how your happiness will directly impact your loved ones.

A happy you is the best version of yourself. Invest time, energy, and resources in living a life of happiness every day.

Add a comment

What is your view?

Send

Related posts:

Is downshifting a right decision?

At the moment lots of people work on the jobs they are not satisfied with working conditions or amount of the work that they have to do. Personally I consider, they should go downshifting, because…

Selection of rice husk biomass pellet mill

We typically speak about rice husk pellet fuel and biomass pellet mill, however do you recognize exactly how it is used, and also what are the criteria for rice husk biomass pellet device choice? Now…