Finding happiness–like catching butterflies
So much time is spent on finding happiness. Just when you think you have it right, it flits away. Happiness seems just round the corner, just beyond the next goal, just over the next hill, just through the last obstacle.
If I get that job, I’ll be happy.
If I can earn enough to buy a car, I’ll be happy.
If I can get into that university, I’ll be happy.
If he loves me, I’ll be happy.
If my boss left, I’ll be happy.
Yet the pleasure we expect from these events sometimes doesn’t come, and at other times last just a moment.
So is there a secret to finding happiness?
Who isn’t interested in finding happiness? If not for yourself, then for someone you love? Some people seem to have much happier, luckier lives than others. In the last 20 years, psychologists and behavioural scientists have been researching what makes people happy. This post is much too short to go into all of the ways that you can make your life happier –for a quick run through watch Dan Gilbert’s TED talk summarising the secret of happiness. The secret is not asking and expecting the universe to give you what you want, the secret is about choosing to be happy. Taking pleasure in the small things, looking for the good, learning, finding meaning and contentment will make you a happier person. Here are two quotes which sum up the key points of finding happiness.
It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing
that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.
Dale CarnegiePlenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it,
but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.
William Feather
If you need some cheering up, try my Seven Steps to Cheer Yourself Up