What is something that REALLY makes you happy? Like the kind of happy where you’re grinning from ear to ear and it takes people looking at you strangely in order for you to notice it.
Is this something you experience on a regular basis? Is your day filled with activities that you enjoy, or activities you think you HAVE to do? If you are in the second group you are actually in the majority. So many of us sacrifice our lives in order to accomplish “goals” that are often set for us, rather than by us. We give up the best years of our lives to accumulate trinkets that lead us to believe we have succeeded, while we are too hesitant to attempt to succeed at anything that really matters to us.
Welcome to the Land of the Sheeple
It’s unfortunate, but this way of living is rather common. We have been trained to moderate risk at every corner and to stifle our dreams in exchange for stability and financial security. To this I say HELL NO! I will not submit to living a life of mediocrity, to fulfilling someone else dreams instead of my own and repressing my passions out of fear of failure, judgement or inadequacy.
It took my a lot of time and effort to get to where I am, yet today I feel confident that I am living the life that I actually want to live and in turn it is bringing me joy and happiness.
This is how it's done boys
Here is my story. Hopefully you can gain wisdom and inspiration from the choices I have made while learning from and avoiding the mistakes that I have made.
My story began when I was just a wee lad. People would ask me what I wanted to be in life and time and time again my answer would be “I want to be happy”. I had many hobbies but I never found myself excited about the idea of “having a job”. My happy place was, and still is, deep in the woods communing with nature.
As I grew older my responsibilities increased and I felt the ever increasing burden of maintaining a certain “lifestyle”. Clothes to impress the girls, job titles to impress my friends, fancy cars to impress myself. I realized that in order to “be happy” it was going to cost me… a lot. I quickly got to work creating the life that I was “promised” would make me happy.
A slave to my own beliefs
I worked hard for a few years, having moderate degrees of success here and there… yet at the end of it all, I still wasn’t happy. I had the cars, the girls, the lifestyle, but at the end of the day my soul still felt slightly empty, as if I was missing something rather important.
I decided that this approach, even though it was preached by so many, wasn’t for me. Then and there I decided to search for a different way of living and never quit until I found the life that I truly wanted to live.
At first I thought my problem was that I was working too much. If only I could discover a way to provide for all of my needs without having to work “that” much, I would be happy. This was definitely part of the puzzle (if we are working so much that we have no time to do what we enjoy we’re in trouble) but it definitely wasn’t going to solve everything.
After some additional searching I realized that if I wasn’t doing the things that I really wanted to, I probably wouldn’t be that happy. What a shocker, eh?? Turns out doing the things we “really want to” can be quite challenging. What if we go after our dreams and fail? Even worse, what if we try these things and we still aren’t happy. I summoned up all the courage I could and gave it my best shot.
Now we're cruising
The road was bumpy and filled with unexpected twists and turns, yet at the end of the path (where I am now) I found that doing the things that I truly dreamt of did indeed increase my level of happiness.
That brings me to where I am now. I have the luxury of being able to support myself through a variety of means and in turn, have taken the opportunity to pursue my dreams. In addition to this I’ve been exposed to a new mindset: one where I use my own passions and ambitions to fund and support themselves, sharing and profiting off of the joy that arises through my own lifestyle.
This is a wonderful place to be and for this reason (and more) I desire to share this “wisdom” with others so that they too can reach for the stars and actually grasp hold (and possibly move in).
Life... only as complicated as we make it
It turns out it’s not that complex of a solution. Figure out what you REALLY enjoy doing, get pretty good at it and then share the fruits of your labor with the world around you (or even better an audience that will be willing to support you). There is something really cool about humans… for the most part, it makes us happy when we see other people doing things they enjoy. With the world as it is today, happiness has become a hot commodity that many of us are willing to pay good coin for. This allows the people like you and I to cultivate and curate our lives to a point where our happiness is infecting and infatuating those around us, and in doing so creating opportunities for an energy exchange (I’m talking about getting paid).
The idea isn’t rocket science. We’re simply doing things that bring us joy and sharing that joy with those around us. Whether you are providing a product, a service, or something I can’t even imagine, if you are creating it with joy in your heart it’s going to be more valuable, more desirable and you are going to be more successful.
It's up to you folks
Don’t take my word for it. Try it for yourself. Do your best to not worry about the money part at first but rather focus on putting out as much joy and love as possible and then let the cards fall where they may. I bet you will be surprised.
Some tips I’ve learned through my own experience
- You will be tested. When you are making a shift like this, life is going to “put you through the ringer” to make sure you are serious about your change. If you make a legitimate effort, the universe seems to have a way of knowing.
- When it seems like everything is going wrong, things are going really right. I’ve experienced this countless of times. Be patient, continue believing in your self and everything will work out.
- When it seems like you have nothing left to give is the time that you need to be giving the most. Trust (it’s part of the game) and it will all work out in the end.
- You’ve got to be willing to say yes. If you are putting in all this work up front, and then an opportunity to change your life presents itself… say yes! It’s scary, I know, but isn’t that what this is all about. If we are not willing to say yes even the most perfect opportunity will be pass us by.
May the force be with you
These are some of the experiences that I have had along my journey. I don’t think of myself as a master but rather another of the students just sharing his perspective. I assure you that the way I have grown/evolved will not be the same as it is for you; however, I think there are some commonalities that we can all learn from. Remember folks, all it takes is a sliver of a dream, the patience to allow it to happen and the courage to believe you can actually pull it off. Give life a chance and you will be rewarded with riches beyond your wildest dreams.
Cheers y’all, keep soaring.
Check Out Some Of My Other Posts Here
Frustrated With Life?? ... What is Happiness and How Can We Learn To Cultivate It?
Neuro-Linguistic Programming... What is it and how can it help me improve my life
On Death and Dying... What to Do When It Is Not Happening to Us
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