Interchange your thoughts of Cause and Effect
Our thought process
The typical way we all think about happiness is “If I have X then I will happy”. Replace X by anything that you are pining for — “a better paying job”, “more money in the bank”, “expensive vacation”, “etc”. It also sounds logical to our minds. As soon as I get “X” I shall be happy. We declare it to ourselves and believe it to be true.
Doesn’t really work that way
Problem is, this is faulty thinking. We do not really know what happiness is, so how can we decide that we will be happy IF something that we want happens? How can we be so sure that will lead to happiness? See the problem? And hence, aren’t we building our entire “happiness prospect” by faulty logic?
Say, we get what we wanted. Then what happens? Are we happy? Temporarily elated, excited, joyful, maybe. But happy? In the sense of permanent happiness? No, not really, right? As we all have no doubt experienced this time and again. As soon as we get what we wanted and what we thought would make us happy, it didn’t. Not the long lasting happiness for sure. Our happiness suddenly then rests on the next thing that we want. And on and on that goes in a permanent loop. So what is wrong?
Can we change our thought process?
How about we replace the above statement and thought process by “If I’m happy then I can achieve X”. If I am happy, then I can achieve what I want. Yes, I can get a better job if I want to, I can make more money if I want to, I can take that expensive vacation if I want to. But first, let me be happy.
Does not sound logical, right? You may argue — Are you saying that if I am happy, then suddenly there will be more money in the bank? Or I will land that dream job just like that? No, no, of course not. There is no such magic in this universe, unfortunately. You still got to work on getting what you want. But what a state of internal happiness does bring is a change in mindset. A change in mindset leads to better thinking, opening up better avenues for approaching your wants and a better plan to make it happen. It all begins with a happy and positive mindset.
So next time, force your mind to start by being happy with your current situation. Whatever that may be. You may discover to your surprise that the positive mindset changes you. Just by thinking differently, avenues open up, things fall into place and lo and behold, you are able to achieve what you want to.
Try it, wont you? You don’t have anything to lose.
“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” ― Abraham Lincoln
