Let’s face it. Every time you turn around, you
find new advice on being happy. Books promising to reveal the true secret
of happiness line the shelves of Barnes & Noble and are suggested readings on Amazon.com. Blog posts telling you, “Write down three things that make
you happy today.” Friends saying “Move on!” and, “Cheer up!” after you’ve
had a bad day.
And maybe you’re wondering… what’s wrong with that?
Happiness is a good thing right? Well, yes.
Of course it is.
But we are being taught that our lives should be a
straight and narrow path toward happiness.
We are taught that we should strive for happiness, and
happiness alone in everything we do.
And that if we’re not always feeling happy, then
something is terribly wrong.
The truth is, happiness should not be our only focus,
and continuously striving for it, to the detriment of everything else, can
actually cause us to make lots of mistakes. Here are seven such mistakes, one at a time, and how to fix them:
1. We view setbacks and growing
pains as failures.
When we actively pursue happiness, anything that makes
us feel unhappy can seem like a failure – such as a simple setback or
challenging moment – when in reality these things are unavoidable, normal parts
of personal growth. Sometimes it’s just easier to feel depressed and
trapped by these experiences and let them get the best of us.
Think about a time in your life when you faced a
challenge. Maybe you lost your job, were betrayed by your best friend,
and got rejected by a loved one. How did you respond to this? Did
you feel like a victim, or did you embrace it as an opportunity to grow as a
person and learn something valuable?
If you’re like most people (including myself), you
probably struggled to have a positive attitude at the time, and the situation
was probably incredibly hard to deal with.
For myself, in that situation, I learned that challenges
are never easy.
However, setbacks and challenging moments in life are also opportunities in disguise for something bigger and better. If we can learn to appreciate and embrace them equally to the moments that make us feel happy, we can more easily see the light in our darkest moments, push through these difficult times, and make the most of every opportunity to heal and grow.
However, setbacks and challenging moments in life are also opportunities in disguise for something bigger and better. If we can learn to appreciate and embrace them equally to the moments that make us feel happy, we can more easily see the light in our darkest moments, push through these difficult times, and make the most of every opportunity to heal and grow.
#2 next time.
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