25 May What gets in the way of your happiness?
My wife’s gone away for a few days so I’m pleased to say that I’m enjoying doing a few extra “daddy duties”; and this morning, after dropping my daughter at school and waiting until it was time to take my son to pre-school we were playing in a park at which they have some kids toys lying around.
My son started playing with a plastic truck and as he prepared to move it along some imaginary path he had planned it soon became apparent that the myriad of randomly arranged toys lying around were in his way.
Now as a rational adult my first reaction was to pick up the toys that were in the way, or to remove the obstacles, so I could move the truck along the ideal trajectory…but my son didn’t even think of this. Instead, he simply picked up the truck, carried it over the other obstacle toys, and continued along his merry way.
It got me thinking about what we do (or don’t do) when things get in the way of our happiness!
Do you focus too much on obstacles and what you think you need to do to remove them? Do you allow road-blocks to distract your attention from the ultimate goal (e.g. happiness)? Because focusing on obstacles (even if we think we’re trying to overcome them) is still focusing on obstacles!
What would happen if, like my son, we simply stayed focused on what we wanted to achieve despite the hurdles, obstacles, challenges that frequently get in our way? Think about it…I suspect we might be far more successful and far more focused on our positive outcomes and ultimately, I suspect we’d experience far more happiness.