“I’ll be happy when…” is a refrain that echoes around the backroads of our minds, a micro program that runs all so often just beneath our awareness. When I get a raise, when my partner starts/stops ‘x’, when I lose ‘y’ pounds; when, when, when. Yet ‘when’ never really comes and when and if it does, it is never quite as fulfilling or satisfying as we anticipated, or the feelings are much more fleeting than expected.
The most insidious effect, the most self-sabotaging impact of this belief, is that it takes our focus away from being happy in the present moment, fully and completely grateful for the blessings we do have, appreciative for the things we already have.
And we already know the answer: Life is a Journey, not a Destination and Happiness is a Habit, a State of Mind, an Attitude of Gratitude, not a physical situation. The challenge lies in living these truths every moment of our lives, forever and always choosing to walk on the Sunny Side of the Street.
Closing Quotes:
“Not that I speak in respect of want; for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” – Philippians 4:11, Apostle Paul, c. 5 – c. 64/65 AD
“The world I am desperately trying to understand is the one in which men think they want one thing and then upon getting it, find out to their dismay that they don’t want it nearly as much as they thought or don’t want it at all and that something else, of which they were hardly aware, is what they really want.” – Albert O. Hirschman, 1915-2012
“In the quest for happiness, most of us try to guess what the future might bring, then try to project ourselves, with all our hopes, quirks and predilections, into that unknown. We use a fuzzy image of the future to make all kinds of decisions… Those predictions are essential to happiness… and they are most always wrong.” – Psychology Today, Jan/Feb 2005, p. 45
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier