Happiness = Giving Things Up

I just want to be happy 🤔

We’ve heard this probably a ton of times in the wilds of our lives. Maybe, we’ve been the one saying it. With the series I wanted to go after the common pursuit we all have, to be happier. What I think we don’t take a moment to think about is what we have to give up to get there.

When happiness is not paid in full to us we look for the quick ways we can get it. Never really establishing something more consistent that can feed our happiness. We buy things we don’t need. Aquire social likes because we think it gives us the value of happiness with each 👍.

The idea of giving something up doesn’t register with us in that mode of acquiring and adding to our lives to find happiness. Decluttering our minds and life however, is the best way to get to a path of feeling longer, lasting happiness. We have to change the very way our mind maps our way to being happy.

You have many habits that weaken you. The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. – Socrates

Here’s some practical negative habits we can practice giving up to find happiness:

Stop complaining. Where you mind goes, so goes your attitude. If it’s always buried in complaining all the time about what your not happy about, you’re never going to find the light of happiness at the end of the tunnel. Not only are you not going to find happiness with your incessant complaining, you are taking happiness away from others around you.

Be present with your limitations. Let go of those uncertainties you have, embrace what you have as limitations. In fact, use them as a catalyst for better experiences. Instead of letting them be limits to what you can do take the opportunity to learn something new. You’ll be more engaged and happier with the challenge to learn something you didn’t know. Best way to get started, read something you’ve never read before. Learn.

Stay away from the well of negativity. Let go of relationships, experiences, and places that breed large amounts of negative energy. The more you are in the spaces of negativity, the more it will draw you in and turn you into a negative thinker as well as person. Once you’re there, the pull to positive and happier spaces will be limited from your line sight to take advantage of. I call it negative blindness.

Instead telling someone they are to blame, ask how can you help. Unhappy people make it a habit to place blame on others when things don’t work out. Instead of pointing a finger, think of how many are pointed back at you and where you can help. If someone else is to blame, someone else is in need of help. Be the helper and not the destroyer.

Our mind is fantastic and we just have to make sure we’re listening to it and being aware of where it takes us. If you can do that, you’ve taken your first step to becoming a lot more happier. You be able to combat the negative blindness and see a world rich in positivity. With that, a world full of happiness. Going into the weekend, the next post we will spend a bit more specific time digging into how we practice gratitude daily. It’s a mind changer habit that will get us to play in a more positive mindset over a negative one.

Thanks for reading. ✌🏻

Shawn