A Lesson in Happiness

I haven’t discovered the key to happiness yet. I don’t quite know where life is taking me or where I’ll be in the next few years. Am I happy with my life right now? Yes. Could I be happier? Of course I could. There is always room for that.

Happiness means different things to different people. Some people find happiness in money, women, drugs, sex, marriage, video games, careers, etc. Some find it in knitting, stamp collecting, wine-making, and hopscotch.

For me, my current happiness lies in making YouTube videos (Check out my channel here). It is something that I would have never fathomed in my younger introverted days. But, now it has blossomed into something that I truly love.

There are a ton of naysayers, a ton of people telling me pursue something with my degree, get a good job and start a family. I feel like that life isn’t for me right now. I need to follow my passions. You need to follow yours.

We can all argue different perspectives to what the key to happiness is because it means different things to different people. For me, I know that the key to my personal happiness only lies within me.

The key to YOUR happiness only lies within you. No one else possesses (or should possess) the capacity to ruin your happiness. Not your friends, family, significant others, co-workers, bosses, government, or the people I may have left out.

Negative statements and remarks come from all sides to hinder people. It is one of the many sad truths of human nature. But we cannot let these comments affect us.

Everyone is responsible for their own happiness

Do not hinge your happiness on anything external. Instead, anchor it to yourself. You are the key to your own happiness. Happiness seems like such a fickle emotion. It can change in a matter of a few seconds. But on the flip side you have the ability to choose!

In your head, you get to choose what affects you. You get to choose how you feel (for the most part). The human mind has the capacity for amazing ideas, feelings, notions, and concepts.

You can choose to let certain things affect you. You can choose what you want to filter out and disregard. Don’t let a Facebook ‘unfriend’ or a Twitter ‘unfollow,’ or any rude comments surfacing in your life affect you. They are insignificant in the larger spectrum.

I ask myself four questions when something ‘terrible’ (Most of the time it isn’t terrible, but your mind overplays it) occurs.

1) Is there anything wrong right now? (The answer is always no, unless I am literally put in a life/death situation which has never happened…yet)

2) Can I change this situation? (Can I ignore the comment? Can I walk away? The answer is usually a resounding yes.)

3) How do I feel right now? (Once I discover that I’m not in a life/death situation, the answer to this question is usually ‘content’)

4) Am I able to continue with my life? (Even though sometimes your mind decides that you can’t, when you ask yourself this question, you quickly realize that no matter what the problem, the ability to move on is always there.)

Analyze the problem with a level head and ask yourself these questions. In most situations letting the minor things hinder your happiness is not worth it. If you have trouble with this, check out my last post.

Unless you’re in a life/death situation you should let anything hinder you. You deserve to be happy. You owe it to yourself. In life, you don’t have the opportunity of practices runs and cheat codes. You get one. Make the best of it and live as happy as you deserve to be.

What do you do when you are unhappy? When faced with adversity? Leave a comment in the section below. My readers and I would love to hear from you.

Be bold, be free, and love on.