How to Unlock True Happiness
And what true happiness means
Are you honestly happy? There’s a difference between happiness and true happiness.
What do I mean by that?
Most people pursue fake happiness; they chase after materialistic objects to give them a temporary sensation of what they believe is happiness.
People often buy nice cars and fancy clothes to appear happy and mask their inner dejection. However, acquiring these things doesn’t always equal happiness. All those things may excite you for the moment but are a means to an end. Here are ways to obtain true happiness.
Happiness Is an Inside Job
Real happiness comes from within. So too often, people get caught up trying to fit in and be liked by other people and make everyone else happy that they don’t even know how to make themselves happy.
Spend time with yourself, work on yourself. When you take time to find things that make you happy and match your energy, the quality of love and happiness you’re able to radiate to others elevates. You no longer expect things in return because you’re full of self-love.
Once you release the things that no longer serve you and you create space in your life, you have room for all your blessings to come in.
Stop shrinking to fit places you’ve outgrown.
The key to true happiness is progress. When we’re constantly learning and making progress, that’s when we feel alive. So true happiness isn’t some esoteric illusion; it’s capable in all of us.
Stop Passing Judgment
This includes judging yourself. People judge themselves because somebody else put a voice of negativity in their head and confused it for their own.
Your mind thrives on what you feed it—happiness is predicated on fueling your thoughts and emotions with positivity. Of course, there are always going to be trials and tribulations, hardships, and bad days. But don’t let your struggle become your identity.
Nobody is ever happy 100% of the time; we all go through shit.
But happy people don’t judge people.
Every moment you’re spending judging other people is time you’re not spending working on yourself. So when you stop passing judgment and understand you don’t have all the context, you allow happiness to take its place.
Audit yourself because, in actuality, you don’t have the full story of other people.
Embrace Your Shortcomings
When you learn to love failure and embrace your shortcomings, the less negative effect they have on you, failure becomes a learning experience. Therefore, I prefer to seek out failure. It means you’re trying things.
People often become fearful at the thought of failure to the point where they stop trying things to begin with. However, life is too short not to step up and swing the bat.
Learn to let go; self-worth isn’t measured on wins and losses.
One of my favorite quotes comes from Jim Carrey, he says:
“So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality, what we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect so we never dare to ask the universe for it”.
Stop fearing failure and dare to ask the universe for it.
Appreciate the Little Things
It’s easy to get caught up in life’s demands and overlook the simple things that can make us happy. Find time to catch the sunrise with a cup of coffee, take an evening walk to a relaxing spot, stop and smell the roses.
Life is full of twists and turns, ups and downs. We get pulled in different directions and set our sights on achieving big things that oftentimes the smaller things get put on the back burner.
As life progresses, we look back and realize the little things were big and are usually the moments we feel our happiest.
True happiness is a gift that must be valued and nourished; it's not something you find one day like a beautiful seashell on a beach and put it up somewhere to be admired.
Happiness is a part of life that has a life of its own. Value, and nourish it, and it will grow and become deeper and more valuable. Give it no value and forget to nourish it, and it will die, simple as that.
