In this modern world that we live in, everything is about instant gratification.
You’re phone makes a noise and instantly you know that you just received a text message, so you stop what you’re doing to open your phone and read it. The same goes for social media posts, every like or comment you get gives you a high feeling.
Yet, when it comes to happiness the majority of us are perfectly content with delaying the gratification until an arbitrary or set goal is achieved.
But why?
This widespread mindset and attitude is totally flawed.
By holding off on feeling happy, you make the goal you strive for as the end all be all. Without much conscious thought, you automatically determine that only once you’ve attained this goal will you then feel happiness and all of the positive feelings that accompany it.
You’re subconsciously deciding to give yourself permission to feel happy only based on an outcome.
While there’s a strong possibility that once you do reach your goal you’ll feel like you’re experiencing joy and/or pride, in reality it will be more so a fleeting sense of relief. Once these short lived sensations pass, you’ll simply move on to the next goal in front of you and repeat the vicious cycle again and again.
This is no way to live life.
Happiness lives in and can only be felt in the present, not in the future when you hope to achieve your ideals.
Do you really think that once you reach your aspirations you’ll just magically and permanently feel happiness and everything that isn’t going well in your life will instantly turn around for the better?
I call bullshit.
Instead of focusing so much of your time and energy on a big event/goal, it’s essential to shift your mindset and attitude by detaching from outcomes.
F the BS: It’s time you realize that you can be happy right NOW, regardless of your circumstances.
It starts by realizing that you are both your best friend and your worst enemy. Mastering the self is the most difficult yet most rewarding thing you can do in your life.
You can begin to create positive habits and routines in your daily life. Instilling rituals that enable you to slow down, reflect on your life and discover and release regrets/resentment about your past and anxiety/stress about the future.
Once you can take a deep look within and eradicate these negative emotions, you can start to live in the present moment. When you live in the present, you’ll enter into a state called flow which will naturally make you feel happy and grateful (paradoxically it will also allow you to attain goals easier).
As you practice with persistence and consistency, you’ll begin to realize that life is all about the journey and trying to live in the moment as much as possible.
Our daily habits and routines are what remains long after any big goal is ever reached. It’s actually the small wins that we constantly achieve that cumulatively add up throughout our lives that have the most profound impact on us.
Only when we become enlightened by these revelations can we truly attain a lifetime of infinite happiness, despite any specific situation that we find ourselves in.
“To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.” Gautama Buddha