Have you ever met that person who is really happy all the time? Does being around them make you wonder why you aren’t happier. Have you ever thought it to be strange or weird when someone around you seems ‘too’ happy?
There have been many studies, copious amount of research and numberless articles on this subject. It seems everyone is looking for the secret to more longer lasting happiness. I have read and studied many of these ideas myself. I’ve learned about being more mindful, having more gratitude, strengthening relationships, being more compassionate, smiling more, being positive. All of these are amazing ways to create greater happiness in our lives, and these ideas are no secret for a lot of us.
I think where we get stuck, is in the application of these ideas to our lives. We can get so stuck in our default patterns, in the way we have always done things. Even though we might have all the knowledge about all greatest happiness secrets that would create more happiness for us we CHOOSE to not implement them, we CHOOSE to live small, we CHOOSE to stay comfortable, we CHOOSE to not make the changes that we know will create more happiness.
Why do we do this? The simple answer is because we are human. Just like anything new, implementing change in our lives can be hard. If personal change and development was easy we would look around more often to find people around us living lives we would never imagine they would be living. We would look back at our past and not be able to recognize who we used to be. We would be the person we want to be.
The truth is personal change and development is not comfortable. Creating greater happiness in our lives will only come from first being dedicated to embracing the uncomfortable. Change does not feel good all the time. Change can be rather uncomfortable so naturally we really like to avoid it. We give up the long lasting happiness for the immediate relief in the moment. We all know what our immediate relief looks like. Maybe it’s food, maybe Netflix, Maybe it’s distracting ourselves with our phone. Whatever your relief looks like in the moment… that’s what we need to be willing to be aware of and work on changing.
I don’t believe that there is a ‘get happy quick’ secret out there. What I do know is that the best kept secret to creating more lasting happiness is to allow yourself to feel unhappy and uncomfortable while you work on becoming the person you want to be. Finding true happiness in our lives is first a choice we make to better ourselves through continued effort and dedication. First make an INTENTIONAL choice each new day of the new year ahead to cultivate lasting happiness. Second, what immediate relief are you indulging in that’s getting in the way of your dreams and goals. This is where we can start.
Here’s to your Happy New Year!
