Have you ever thought, "I'll be happy when {insert event} happens?" If so, you are probably guilty of taking the hardest possible path to happiness.
The easiest path to happiness is to be happy.
Please don't make your happiness dependent on certain events. "I'll be happy when I get a bigger house" is a formula designed to keep you unhappy for the next three to 20 years.
Likewise, "I'll be happy when I can get a different boss" will keep you sullen every day when you go to work.
Happiness is a mindset, not an outcome.
The Happiness Mindset works better than many other mindsets, including the:
Anxious Mindset
Frustrated Mindset
Woe-Is-Me Mindset
Envious Mindset
Angry Mindset
In 2003, the Zen master and poet Thich Nhat Hanh spoke to members of the United States Congress. He said...
We should be awakened to the fact that happiness cannot be found in the direction of power, fame, wealth and sex. If we look deeply around us, we see many people with plenty of these things, but they suffer very deeply.
Happiness is not conditional. It is a state of mind.
I know some people who are nearly always happy, and others who are nearly always unhappy. There does not seem to be many differences in the circumstances between these two types of people, other than with regards to how they feel.
One of the great lessons of my own life is that human beings have a much greater ability to change our reality than we realize.
If you want to be happy, be happy.
If you are not happy, it is because - at some level - you have chosen unhappiness.
Yes, I know that horrible things can happen. (I read the headlines every now and then.)
In recent days, I was happy when I...
Woke up
Lifted weights
Drank a shake
Took a few deep breaths
Was typing
Stopped typing
Started typing, then stopped, then started again
Noticed it was partly cloudy, then a bit later noticed it was mostly sunny
If you want an immediate boost in your happiness, try being grateful for the smallest blessings in your life: each bite of food, each deep breath, each step you take and each time that you wake up and lie down in bed.
Be happy, not just when {insert event} happens.