30 Mar 3 ways you might be undermining your own happiness (and what you can do about it)!
Sometimes, without even knowing it, we do things that take away our own happiness.
Sometimes, without even knowing it, we steer ourselves away from happiness and toward misery.
Oft times, if we become aware of what we're doing wrong, we can make corrections and then, ultimately, enjoy a better life!
Check out this nice article from the Huffington Post…
by Jan Bruce
For better or worse, we believe that happiness is a natural born right, and maybe even an obligation — if you aren't happy, you have an obligation to your family, your work, and yourself to make it happen.
But as a recent program on NPR's "TED Radio Hour" pointed out, happiness isn't a final destination, nor is there a secret to attain it permanently. When show host Guy Raz asked his first guest, musician Pharrell Williams, if he had the secret to happiness, Williams was nonplussed.
"Okay," he said slowly. "Well, look. I'm not some guy who's walking around smiling every day. We all have our ups and downs lefts and rights and diagonals." This, from the man whose song "Happy" is a worldwide hit with a four-minute video of pure joy.
To think of happiness as an ultimate and long-lasting goal is, in fact, missing the point. Look at the Declaration of Independence again. The unalienable rights aren't life, liberty and happiness. What we get is the pursuit.
The pursuit of happiness. To me, this means that happiness is an approach to life. It's a mindset that, sure, includes moments of glee, but is really about responding to those ups and downs and diagonals with a commitment to health. When you pair an attitude of happiness with the skills of resilience, you can keep from being dragged down by everyday stressors, giving you a better shot at staying buoyant.
Because if there's an obligation here, perhaps it is to use your life well — to be the healthiest person you can be for self, family, work, community. That's happiness with a purpose, which is happiness on a lifelong scale.
Here are three ways we zap our own happiness — and how to build it back.
1. You try to do too much at once. Busyness is our common malady. I've written before on how busy is the new black — a badge of honor and an unspoken expectation for success. Whether you're over-scheduling client meetings or taking on yet another school fundraiser, you blow out all your circuits when you stay in constant cram mode.
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Try this. I have committed to three things that put me on a path to create a reliable ebb and flow between busy and not-busy:
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No smartphones at meals — with friends, with family, with colleagues and clients.
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Taking a long walk three times a week — yes, without my phone.
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And last, and this one is hard when you have many commitments: One day off the grid each week (at least, while there is daylight!)…
…keep reading the full & original aricle HERE