03 Nov Happiness despite problems
Yet again, my friend Lionel has pulled no punches and gone straight for the most direct way to finding happiness. Read on and enjoy…
Find happiness despite problems – by Lionel Ketchian
Do you let things bother you? Are you unhappy?
FUGGETABOUTIT! Make happiness the # 1 priority in your life and make the Happiness Decision now! Don’t let anything get in the way of your happiness! Sure, you can experience a not so nice person or get lousy service somewhere, but you don’t have to let those things rob you of your happiness.
If you see everything as a problem, you will look at life through your problems. Look at your problems as just a small part of your life, not all of it. Don’t go wishing you had no problems, you would get bored very quickly. Pay attention to being able to deal with your problems.
Got problems? Everyone does. Happiness should be your strategy no matter what happens. Why? Happiness allows you to be in a better frame of mind to deal with your problems. Once you have placed yourself on the path of happiness, you can deal with the details of your problems. Can you do anything about your problem? Sometimes, you can’t. Sometimes you can do some thing about a problem. If you can’t do anything, remember the Serenity Prayer, and leave it alone. Don’t go there. You will only succeed in making yourself miserable, and unhappy.
How do you handle a problem? The answer is simple. In a happy state of mind, just start thinking about what your choices are. What options do you have? Once you can see all the choices…pick one! It may not be the best choice of all time, but it is the best one you know for now. Once you have made a choice about how to deal with the problem, you can manage your problem. You’re in control, not your problem. You have control over yourself. You may not have complete control of the problem, but you do not let the problem control you. You don’t have to face your problem if you face your choices, and make the best one for now. That will make all the difference in the world.
Keep focused in this moment. If you stay tuned to the present moment, you are giving yourself the greatest gift life can offer. The gift is this present moment. You have the gift of life, what are you choosing to do with it? Your ability to cope with your problem is related to staying in the present. If you constantly regret the past, you will be unhappy. If you fear the future, you will not only be unhappy, but you will be unable to cope with it.
Good Olympic athletes are absorbed in the present. In fact they are not happy because they win. Being happy is the power that gives them the subsistence to win. They have to love what they are doing to be really great. If they take care of each moment as it happens, they ensure their success in the future. The future is just a string of present moments waiting to happen. How you deal with this moment sets up the cause and effect for future moments. When the game is over … it’s over! Letting your thinking take you into the past will only become disturbing to you. You’re not putting your power where it can do the most good by living in the past. Then is then, and now is now! Remember that, and the past will no longer affect you in a negative way.
The future will come upon you, at some point in time, and you will experience the future as this moment. What we are talking about is right NOW. So if you handle NOW well, your future is set. You will have no fear if you stay focused on this moment.
Stop to think about something you are grateful for in this moment. Maybe it is as simple as having the gift of vision. Being able to look out the window or reading this positive article. Whatever you can conceive of, that you can be grateful for, will enable you to feel happy. The grateful thought you just had is making you feel good. It is not possible to be grateful and feel bad. If just one moment of grateful thinking has made you feel good, imagine what a lot of gratitude will do for your attitude.
Start acting happy right now, for no reason at all, The reasons will come if you just keep doing it. Soon you will find yourself experiencing happiness and loving it. Once you start walking the happiness path it will be much more appealing to you. It will become the choice you make every single time, no matter what is happening. The choice you are not aware of is the choice you can’t make.
The most important aspect of thinking is to arrive at a decision. Use your thinking for that purpose. Decisions are also emotional, so being happy accesses your best thinking state and gives you the benefit of your inner wisdom and common sense. This is a favorite quote of mine from Goethe: “A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”
When people feel that they are not in control, they feel unhappy. Take control of the things you can, and don’t worry about the rest. If you don’t like something and you can’t change it…FUGGETABOUTIT! Learn to live with it…for now. If you don’t you will be unhappy. It will be a result of your choice to be unhappy, not because of having the problem.
You never have to face another problem again as long as you face your choices and then make the best one for now. Unhappy people do not make choices; they react to everything and choose nothing. By reacting, they usually make things worse. This happens as a result of seeing life through their unhappiness. When you react, you are allowing your unhappiness to choose for you. Instead you can use happiness to respond to your problems or whatever life may throw at you.
Unhappy? Fuggetaboutit, be happy now! Be happy in this moment. Happiness is a gift to use for the rest of your life. Happiness is within you. It is within this present moment. Life has given you this present. TAKE IT, USE IT, BE HAPPY. Only you can decide to use this gift. Make HAPPINESS # 1 in your life right now!
For more information, go to – www.happinessclub.com