As we prepare to enjoy some holiday or end-of-year festivities, it is important to remember something about happiness. Happiness is not a goal or result of our effort. Happiness is a state we can enter or not, at will.
When we see it as a result, we strive and struggle. We say, “If I do this, if I get that, if this other thing happens, if they change in this way, then I’ll be happy.” While we can occasionally achieve a sense of happiness this way, it fades quickly and we won’t know why. We then go back to disappointment, struggle.
When we see happiness as a state, everything changes. We get to choose to be happy now or not. This instant. Every instant. Even when circumstances would seem to be against us. We are not locked into some bargain with the future. Happiness is right here.
I know you know this is not a new idea. It is one deserving our attention because of our habit of seeing happiness as an outcome and believing we cannot be happy at will.
Choose happy here, now. Pass it on.
In your corner,
Mike
PS: In case you’re wondering, this perspective does not shut down our desire to achieve, do, or have anything. It focuses our desire, guides it, and gives it meaning. Wanting something more while choosing to be happy is a fun, free, and creative way to go about things.
MIke
I already passed on your posting to 2 people before I saw your “pass it on” notation. A lot of people would be so much happier if they realized that it is a mind set not cause and effect.
Hi Deb,
Thank you. And so much war, pain and strife evaporates when one adopts this perspective.
Mike