Living happily is the probably the most wanted way of life and we struggle there not knowing what to do to be happy in life. We tend to be having lots of things in life and yet we are not happy. When people look at us from outside we seem to be too happy but its different in what we experience. Isn’t it true?
So whats the way to be happy in life. Is happiness a specific outcome of something yes. I have known many people who say that material things cannot get happiness and they never aim to get something for them. Their goals seem to be so small and that sense of achievement is never there and hence never happy. Being Materialistic cannot make you happy but atleast it will not make you depressed. Having a good bank balance is better off than being a popper. Atleast that will not make you unhappy, if not happy. You will atleast not feel depressed about not being to have the basic things of life.
So being mateialistic cannot get you happiness what else can? If you need to know the 1 single reason it has to be Purpose. Because in life there will always be challlenges in life. You will never be without challenges. I have explained about this in many of my articles before on if you do not face challenges then it means that you are leading a very mediocre life. You are not leading a great life. Many people enjoy their challenges because its PURPOSE driven.
The one reason that really makes people excited about what they do is the Contribution. Contribution to some major cause that makes them feel important. Unhappiness is also because of not having a sense of contribution. In the movie, “The Rocky”, Rocky Balboa is pushed by his coach Apollo and only in the previous fight he would have lost to Clubber Lang. Rocky will not be able to give the best and will tire out soon during his practise sessions and thats when he understand the true purpose. For him the true purpose is just to prove himself that he is not a coward and can be a winner. Once he understand the purpose he is very happy and enjoys what he is doing. And thats when he realizes that even if he fails he will atleast not be a victim and need not have excuses.
When you are purpose drive and give you 100% even if you do not get the results you feel satisfied and happy that you have given its best shot. Have you experienced this many times? Your conscience is clear that you have done your best.
Many self development authors and speakers have been saying that today life is so comfortable and we need to be happier than our fore fathers. True I do agree with that and the fact that we have a computerized world today which makes life easier and many more easiers ways of doing things with the ATM machines and mobile phones and so on. So if thats ture why are we not happier than our stone age fore fathers?
We all today need a basic lifestyle. This differs from person to person. We have different needs at different times. so our happiness is also an outcome of this. The stone age man just wanted food. Now our needs are more. It is just not having 3 meals a day, its having a car, a house and so on. For few its a big luxury car and a bunglow. If this basic need is not met, then we feel not so great about ourselves and we do not feel happy.
How do you define happiness?
This cannot be a concrete answer. Differnt people define this in differnt ways. But let me tell you something, Happiness is most of the times just a state of mind. If you know what you want then you would always feel great about what you are doing and hence you can feel happy always. The reason why many people do not feel happy inspite of what they have is beacuse many times they do not experience happines. Happiness is an experience that you can live whenever you want. This moment you can be happy thinking about the happiest moment of your life, or feel sad about thinking the most disturbing things in your life.
Do this small exercise:
Close your eyes and recall a time when you felt happy. I want you to intensify this picture how much ever you want. Be in that experience as long as you want to and you can. See the pictures very clearly and hear whatever you heard that made you feel very happy. Once you are there in that intense experience of happiness, hold 2 of your fingers the index and thumb together. (called as Achoring in NLP). Repeat this a few more times until your anchor becomes strong. So whenever you want to feel happy after you have done this exercise, is just to fire the anchor, that is hold your fingers and you will run the same experience and feel the same way!
