What’s your ultimate goal in life? Strip away the specifics — the perfect job, the ideal living situation, the man or woman of your dreams — and it all amounts to being happy. But how do you know if you’re really, truly happy? Well, according to Marc Chernoff of Marc and Angel Hack Life, you don’t do any of these things:
1. Compare your life to someone else’s.
Who cares what your neighbor is doing? Your focus should be on what will make you happy and fulfilled.
“Sometimes the reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes circumstances with everyone else’s public highlight reel,” Chernoff writes. “We listen to the noise of the world, instead of ourselves. So stop the comparisons! Ignore the distractions. Listen to your own inner voice. Mind your own business.”
2. Get our happiness from other people or events.
Since the 1970s, various psychologists have posited the idea that most of us have a baseline of happiness that’s largely unaffected by external events. Too bad, then, that so many of us spend much of our time waiting for things to happen that will make us happier.
Take charge of your life and make your happiness today, both by doing things that will make you feel better and by trying to view things through a more positive lens.
3. Dwell in the past.
Whether it’s brooding about past betrayals or wincing over the dumb stuff you did way back when, let it go. Let go of resentment and you can start to look forward to the future.
Chernoff has a bunch more ideas about happy people and the things they do here. All will bring a smile to your face, even if you’re not quite at perfect happiness yet yourself.
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An excellent definition which makes totally sens to me:
The secret of happiness is not doing what one likes, it is liking what one has to do. ~ James M. Barrie