18 Mar Want to be happier? Here are 5 tiny shifts in thinking to help
via the Ladders by Tim Denning
Everyone wants to be happier. We overthink the process the way we think about what to have for brunch. It doesn’t have to be that hard.
I spent much of my life being incredibly unhappy. This unhappiness was shown through arrogance, entitlement, rage, poor judgment and cruelty towards other human beings.
I wasn’t a bad person. I was just unhappy because nobody showed me what I could do to fix myself rather than walk through the world smashing every good situation to pieces with my fists and blaming everybody else for it.
In my late 20s, I started to turn things around. I focused on small things I could do to experience tiny increases in happiness.
The changes seemed insignificant at the time. After five years of experimenting with these changes in thinking, my approach to life is different. It can be summed up with this thought:
Move away from tasks, people, and events that continually rob you of happiness.
It was subtracting unhappiness first that laid the foundation for everything that followed. Here are the five tiny shifts in thinking to gradually increase your happiness levels.
Care Less About Other People’s Drama
(NB: Dr Happy’s caveat … this does NOT mean being thoughtless or selfish; especially at the moment. But we still need to practice self-care so it’s important to do what you need to do to ensure you’re coping well)
People carry a lot of drama around with them. They can’t wait to dump it on somebody who is happy to accept it on their behalf.
Let them dump their sh*t elsewhere. Do not make drama dumpers your problem.
The way you do this is to care less about other people’s drama and stop playing a part in their circus. Their drama looks like this:
- Commentating on how people live their life
- Always talking about problems and taking no responsibility
- Blaming ‘the company’ or the politicians or the human race for every little thing that goes wrong
- Playing the superior man/woman in every situation
There is so much drama in society and you can escape it by exiting out the stage door and getting back to reality.
See Setbacks as Free Harvard Business Degree
A business degree at a university like Harvard costs thousands of dollars. People get into debt for years just to get one.
What if I told you that a major setback will teach you more than a degree?
Setbacks teach you the following:
- How to manage your mindset
- How to move forward
- What role you played in the setback
- Life strategies
- How to deal with difficult people
- How to be responsible
- How to get your act together
- How to endure some of the toughest days of your life
Now tell me, would you like a degree or life experience that gives you the greatest learning of all? A giant setback is like getting a free Harvard Degree.
Seeing setbacks as having a degree-sized price tag helps change your thinking. The thinking that comes from seeing setbacks as valuable helps you on the days when you want to be anything but happy.
Happiness is a habit and setbacks will test how strong your happiness muscle is so you can grow it.
Don’t Give Yourself the Pleasure of Judging Your Own Ideas
Every idea I have, my brain tells me it’s stupid. When you have an idea and judge it, all you do is sabotage it. Sabotaging your ideas stops them from coming to life and that takes away a piece of your happiness…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE