Being happy doesn’t mean you have everything right now. In fact, that premise alone is completely invalid and unrealistic. Being happy means you’re grateful and appreciate everything you have. The people. Friends. Family. Memories. And even the most ordinary and common moments can be a source of gratitude. Those moments that make life beautiful. There will always be something else we desire. There will always be something else we want. But that thing, that object, that goal—when achieved—does not bring us the happiness we thought it would.
Happiness actually begins when we stop looking for what we think we’re missing, or what is actually missing. Happiness begins when we start to appreciate what is present and what we have right now.
That shift—that small shift within us—causes our frame of reference to change. It makes what we have take center stage. And what we don’t have, or what we think we might need, eventually becomes something that doesn’t occupy our thoughts as much.
However, I don’t mean to say that we should be grateful simply for existing. It’s natural to want more, to long for something we don’t yet have in life—even if only for a moment. But that feeling, that search, shouldn’t be the focus of our lives. We shouldn’t make that search the center of our lives, neglecting everything else.
The steps we’ve taken—which have brought us to where we are today, with the things we have—were only possible because of the choices and paths we’ve taken. Some of them we chose deliberately, and they were indeed paths that led us to success. But some, as is obvious, initially even took us away from what we considered essential. We thought that by taking that path, we’d be further along.
A short while later, we even became aware of something we hadn’t been seeing—something that this setback allowed us to see.
Image by Lost_Wee from Pixabay
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