The pursuit of happiness is a pretty common phrase these days. But what exactly is happiness, or more importantly, what is happiness to you? You see, it doesn't really make sense to pursue happiness, unless you know what happiness is. For some the pursuit of happiness may be like driving along a highway trying to find a town that does not exist.
The first step of course, is to define happiness. The most important definition, of course, is the one that defines what happiness means to you. For some of us. We believe that we would be happy …if we had more money than we could spend…if we had an empowering relationship or, if we could just drive the car of our dreams. For others of us it just might be that we think it's as simple as losing that extra 2 to 5 pounds that we just can't get seem to get rid of…no matter how hard we try.
What I've just mentioned, happen to be all external things. Things we felt we could acquire. Take a look at people out in the world that seem to have all of the things that we think would make us happy. It would stand to reason that they would all be happy. Simple observations tell us that this is simply not the case. There are people with more money than they could ever spend who are miserable. There are people in relationships with the man or woman of their dreams, who are miserable as well. There are people who have their weight perfectly under control that we may look at in envy that are not happy either.
So if happiness doesn't come from getting these things that we want that we think will make us happy where does it come from? Could it be that happiness is based upon something internal?… something that we can only give ourselves and not acquire from outside sources?
I have simply point blank, asked people if they were happy. And either the answer was no or was “I am happy, but…”, rarely did anyone just say yes. Upon further investigation I found out that many people simply did not believe that happiness was possible or that it would only be possible when they acquired some of the things that we mentioned above. This got me to thinking that if you think that obtaining happiness is impossible then you are right and you will find it impossible to obtain happiness. I know that sounds simplistic, but it is true.
Your first step is to believe that happiness is possible and that there are people who exist who are happy and will tell you so without reservation, hesitation, or deceit. If you can believe that happiness is possible then happiness IS possible. If you can truly believe that you can be happy then, you can be happy.
Now that you can believe you can be happy. Let me give you a tip to what happiness is not so that you do not sabotage your happiness in the future. Just keep in mind that living a happy life does not mean that challenges will not arise… it does not mean that your life will be completely free and clear of its problems and pitfalls. This is a point where many people have great difficulty. That is why I felt it necessary to define clearly what happiness was not so that no one will make the mistake of thinking, because their life has challenges that they cannot be happy. You can be happy in a life that has challenges, because everyone has challenges. Make sure you wrap your mind around this concept because it is extremely important. One of the reasons that many people believe that happiness is unattainable is because they believe to be happy there must not be challenges. Nothing could be further from the truth. Erase this from your head because challenges are much as much a part of a happy life, as they are an unhappy life.
Believe that you can be happy and you can be happy. Do this and you have taken the very first step in transforming the life you have into the life you've always wanted.
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