What are you waiting for to be happy?
Everything we do is to get happiness. Our whole lives revolve around it. For instance, we go to work either to get happiness from the job itself or to earn money to spend on things that will give us happiness later.
And yet if that’s the reason for our existence, why then, are so many people unhappy? If you ask most people, there’s usually something that has to happen before they can allow themselves to be happy.
“Once my business starts earning money, I’ll be happy”
“Once I find the perfect partner, I’ll be happy”
“When I retire I’ll be happy”
There are an infinite number of reasons people will give as to why they can’t be happy right now. But will solving their problems bring them happiness? No. Absolutely not. It will just be replaced by another condition that needs to be fulfilled.
As an example, someone who goes job hunting for the first time might say:
“If I could just get a job, I’d be happy”. Later, this is replaced by:
“This job is no good at all. It’s really boring. If I could just get a promotion then I’d be happy.” Later on, this is replaced by:
“I hate this new position in the company. It’s making me miserable. Now, if I could get a better job at that other company that would be much better! Then I’d be happy!” and so on.
The cycle continues. Something will always be standing between you and happiness.
It never stops, UNLESS YOU STOP IT.
So what should you do?
1. Appreciate what you have right now. There are plenty of reasons to be happy right now
2. Accept that staking your happiness on a future situation will never make you happy.
Remembering that you can only be happy now is something that you have to keep reminding yourself every moment of the day. It’s so easy to slip back into “once this is sorted out, then I’ll be happy.” Fight that thought and be happy now!
This article sums up what I tend to think, a lot of the time! It’s always one problem after another, that I always think, if it gets sorted then I can relax, but then another problem appears and it starts all over again. Thanks for drawing attention to it.
[Reply]
Comment by Sam Fowler — June 18, 2009 @ 7:44 pm
I am always waiting to be happy!
[Reply]
Comment by Victoria Grady — July 1, 2009 @ 11:03 pm
[...] me to be happy. I can be happy now. Two things made me realise that. One was reading this article:What are you waiting for to be happy? | The Kaizan Blog and second was reading the book, the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, which is just amazing. it is [...]
Pingback by What do you do to make yourself feel happier? - Page 2 — July 2, 2009 @ 9:01 am
I never thought of it this way. I suppose we all think that something “out there” will make us feel whole again. Its like chasing your tail isnt it?
[Reply]
Comment by Julie Mayne — July 4, 2009 @ 3:29 pm