Happiness Is Crafted By Us, Here’s How
Why most people miss out on feeling happy on a daily basis
A late evening of this past spring I was making some food for dinner as I listened to a motivational podcast.
It was a sunny and mild evening in London. One of the first ones that seemed to be shutting the doors to a long and dark winter and welcoming the long and shiny days of the upcoming summer. And there I was listening to new content that could fuel my creativity so that I could write something fresh.
As I kept listening to the podcast, what Brendon Burchard said had me stop cooking and forced me to sit down to rewind and listen to the same thing a couple of times, to then write it in capital letters on a paper sheet and stick it to my wardrobe, along with all the other essential quotes I have on there.
It was an extremely simple yet powerful sentence that sparked a light in me. He said:
“Happiness is the human desire of a sense of aliveness. If you really want to experience happiness, do more things that make you feel alive. But on one condition, though: that you do them being present.”
As I stared outside the window I had to ask myself a very tough and real question:
“How alive do I feel, on a daily basis?”
The answer was not what I subconsciously thought it would be. And I would love for you to ask yourself the same thing.
How alive do you feel, on a daily basis?
It’s just insane how we all desperately chase down happiness in everything we do, along with a sense of fulfilment and a longing to become better, yet the run to achieving those things makes us miss out on the actual reason why we started pursuing them in the first place.
We start out new journeys, jobs, adventures, relationships and so forth dreaming to be and feel happier than how we did before, and yet things rarely change, don’t they?
Why is that?
Well, that happens because of two fundamental reason.
- We don’t really take the actual time to ask ourselves if what we’re about to do will really contribute to our sense of aliveness.
- Nowadays, whatever it is that we do, we’re never fully present.
People often end up becoming victims of pursuing false ideals. We are bombarded with stimuli on a daily basis on how to have the perfect body, glowing skin, what we should or shouldn’t eat, how to pose in a selfie, what to post on social media, how to look etc.
Most people really don’t know what makes them happy anymore, because as long as they fit in the crowd, their happiness now depends on what their peer group does/thinks/likes/dislikes, automatically turning happiness into “acceptance”.
By doing this, we give out our right to feel truly happy away. Because as long as our life is in constant comparison to those of hundreds of others we can never meet with true happiness.
Happiness is a state that requires being fully present. And being fully present means being true to oneself.
But going back to that sunny evening in London, what I did back then changed how I approached my personal happiness and the quality of my life altogether.
I wrote down a list and went crazy with it. I listed every activity or thing that sparked my sense of aliveness, rating it from the activity/thing that made me feel alive the most to the least.
And I started noticing how many of those things were such simple and doable things that I could literally plan every week and get them done easily.
To give you some examples, I wrote:
- Explore one new place per week
- Have a glass of wine with friends during sunset
- Read in a park
- Go to the cinema
All these seemingly common yet simple things contribute to my happiness, and therefore to my sense of aliveness. Although it could only be by 1% but, hey, doesn’t a 1000 mile journey begin with a single step?
I’m a true advocate of the philosophy “doing small things in order to create big things” and writing down that list allowed me to feel happier and to be able to craft moments of happiness regardless of how my week went.
That’s gaining power back. That’s how crafting happiness is done.
And what about you?
Write that Happy-List down and start crafting moments of happiness.
Claim your right to be happy back. It is truly yours.
