A quote I have in my office reads, “Some pursue happiness, others create it”
What that has always meant to me, is that happiness comes from within us, not from attaining something on the outside. Sure, a healthy family, nice neighborhood, beautiful home, and fulfilling career can help us to feel a sense of happiness, but only when we pay attention to the what we appreciate about those things from the inside. When we focus on what is wrong, unfinished or annoying, that happiness eludes us.
- We can have the healthy family yet be focused on what they are not doing, or are doing that irritates us and then we are no longer happy
- We can live in a nice neighborhood, yet focus on the noise or traffic and then we are no longer happy.
- We can live in a beautiful home, yet focus on the unfinished projects and then we are no longer happy.
- We can have a fulfilling career, yet focus on the boss that is hard to get along with and then we are no longer happy.
What if, instead, you looked for the good and potential everywhere you are and in everything you have – and from that great place choose to create something even better?
How you feel about yourself also plays a significant role in your happiness.
- Knowing your strengths, valuing them and using them often may make your weaknesses irrelevant
- Focus on what is good or great about yourself, just as you are, and you will then remember all the resources you have to tap into even more of your potential.
- Choose to notice the wonder that is there in the small moments that make up most of your daily experience – find those sparks that ignite you to life.
Martin Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness wrote: “a persons happiness can become pervasive if she were to reframe her narrative about an unhappy past, dissatisfying present or hopeless future”