7 Steps to a Happier Life
A lot of people live their lives feeling crappy about everything in their lives: who they are NOT, where they are NOT and what they HAVEN’T got. That’s no way to live. Life is too short not to take advantage of what it has to offer. Have you been feeling like the aforementioned people lately? Here are a few quick fixes that can literally give you a new lease on life, in no particular order
1. Welcome challenges and do your best to overcome them
Sometimes life throws you a curveball and there’s nothing you can do about it. Other times, it’s as if you’re being tested before being rewarded with something totally unexpected. Get out there and land that exciting new job, or get a promotion, or start building your personal business without paying too much attention to the obstacles that are standing in your way right now. Few people would ever accomplish anything had they waited till the time was “right” to take the plunge. Just make sure you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew.
And give it your all. That way, if it doesn’t work, you have no regrets because you know deep inside that you gave it your very best shot. It just wasn’t meant to be.
2. Accept criticism, even embrace it if possible
When criticized, the first reaction for most of us is to defend ourselves or worse yet to lash back. When someone tells you that you’ve done something wrong, that a piece of work isn’t up to scratch, that you look tired, that you made a mistake or that they don’t like what you’re wearing - take it all in stride. Recognize that other people are able to look objectively at what’s happening, so they’re better placed to tell you the truth. Be humble: they’re most likely right
First of all, stop your first reaction. Take a minute before reacting at all. Take a deep breath, and give it a little thought. That little cooling off time takes the edge off of an emotional reaction that might do more harm than good. Let your emotions run their course, and then respond when you’re calmer. Then, try and turn the negative into a positive. The comment itself might be crude and maybe even offensive, but there’s almost always SOME truth to it. Try and see if you can learn from it. You might be happy you did.
3. Focus on your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses
Going back to our first point, it’s very likely that you’ve been on the receiving end of enough criticism to have a pretty good idea of what your weaknesses are. If in doubt, ask. People who don’t like you (or who have a complex of inferiority) will have no problems telling you everything they think is wrong with you, and then some. Your friends might not want to hurt you, so approach them differently. Ask what you’re good at, what you do better than most people, and then what areas you should improve.
It’s good to know what you’re not good at so that you can improve those areas. In some cases, it might be wiser to steer clear of them, especially if they tend to be in the way of you showcasing your strengths.
4. Fight inertia and fear of failure
A simplified version of the law of inertia is that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. How does that apply to you? Well if you don’t want to take any chances out of fear that things might go wrong, well guess what? You won’t do anything and as time goes on, you will feel more and more comfortable not doing anything. On the other hand, get things started, get the ball rolling, and chances are you’ll be so busy keeping things moving that someone will have to call you out so you can take a break.
There’s only one category of people in this world that never fail, those who don’t DO anything.
5. Hope for the best, expect the worst
This is a tricky one. Make your plans and fix your goals according to your hopes for the best. At the same time, avoid being overly optimistic and prepare your contingency planning according to your expectations for the worst. When things are going smoothly, making the right move is easy: a rising tide lifts all boats. It’s when things aren’t going well that legacies are built. Set yourself apart by thinking about what could happen and avoid having it come along out of the blue and blindside you. Let your imagination figure out all the things that can go wrong so that you know what might happen ahead of time.
6. Have high expectations
Someone once said that you should shoot for the moon, because if you miss, at least you’ll be among the stars. high expectations of yourself and what you can do Sure, every now and then you’ll miss a target or two because, quite frankly, things rarely turn out as you want them to. But you will still have accomplished much more than those with low expectations.
7. Make sure you have your own ‘You’ time
I live in New York, where life is as fast-paced as it gets. People have loads going and have all kinds of demands on their time between work, friends, family, sometimes school and/or their community. The best thing to do is to plan things out so that you can do most of what you have to. Remember that you’ll never HAVE time for yourself; you’ll most likely have to TAKE it.
Follow these simple principles and you’ll soon notice that you’ll be feeling more energized and will have a much more positive attitude towards life in general. You might even see yourself eager to get out of bed in the morning because you have stuff to accomplish! You might see yourself equally happy to stay in bed because you did something that earned you some quality time with your significant other and/or kids. And who doesn’t like that idea?
April 27th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
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