Happiness priorities

Happiness priorities

In my experience, and I've worked as a clinical and coaching psychologist for over 20 years now, one of the most common causes of misery and unhappiness is…

…misplaced priorities! 

Too many people think the WRONG things will make them happy. And as a result, they sacrifice happiness for wealth, or success, or achievement or for some mistaken idea of what a healthy body should look like or for some other unhelpful goal. 

Now, there's not necessarily anything inherently wrong with money or accomplishment or health..far from it. But there is something wrong with an excessive and/or unhelpful focus on any of these especially if they're not understood within the context, what should be the ultimate measuring stick, of living a good life. 

Now a "good life" will mean different things to different people and the building blocks that make up a good life and happiness will vary from person to person but in general terms. based on decades of research, our real priorities should be things such as…

  • living a life with meaning and purpose

  • health and wellbeing (which doesn't necessarily mean being "thin" or having a "six pack"!)

  • developing an attitude of gratitude and fostering (realistic) hope and optimism

  • connecting with others an d practising compassion and love and generosity

  • having fun!

The best way to tell what you're priorities really are is to look at how you spend your time. Are you really living the life you want to live? Are you enjoying as much happiness as you could? 

These are your questions for the next few days…no, for life because ultimately these are the only questions we should really be trying to answer!