Chase Meaning Not Happiness
Ultimately, this is what it all comes down to. Finding some kind of work, existence or goal in life that supports you and your loved ones while allowing you to pursue the things in life that matter to you outside of work. Maintaining that balance might seem wildly difficult, but that’s the nature of life. It’s all about realising what it is you love, what you’re good at and what you should be avoiding. This means having as many experiences as possible while you still can. You need to know that you’ve made the right decisions and pursued the right things.
The fact is, very few of us end up working our dream jobs. But that does not mean very few of us end up living happy lives. Nope. We can all shape and manipulate the jobs and areas we end up in to suit us more. We can all make lateral moves to new positions that yield new opportunities and training. It doesn’t matter what you do, you can make a change. The same goes for the other parts of your life. You can make a huge change to your spare time by investing in the right hobbies. If you want more friends, do hobbies that involve meeting new people. If you want to build new skills or learn a language or start a small business, do that. You are in charge of how you spend your time, and failing to chase and do new things isn’t a product of you being unhappy, it’s a cause.
12 Ways to Start Living a Happier Life
Sure, no single one of these things is going to instantly, overnight, make you the happiest, sturdiest person ever to live, that’s just not how it works. However, if you start building in some of these practices into a healthy lifestyle, you can absolutely expect to start feeling a little bit better.
Exercise – Obvious one, right? Everyone should try and make sure they’re at least getting their steps daily. This is one of those things where even if you’re not massively pushing yourself, you’re still going to feel like you’re taking control, and that’s a great thing.
Eat Right – Right by your standards, of course. If you start eating healthy by your own standards, refining and improving your diet, once again you’re going to start feeling better just through taking more control of your life.
Drink More Water – Hardly anyone drinks enough water! Drink some more, it’s easy!
Cut the Toxicity – Whether we’re talking toxic people or toxic self-destructive behaviours, the fact remains that these elements in your life are holding you back and that’s not ideal. Even if it’s just holding toxic people at arm’s length a little more, or cutting down your drinking to once or twice a week, it’s going to make a difference and give you back some of that control and self-determination.
Practice Gratitude – Gratitude is a hugely useful thing when it comes to learning to appreciate all the great things we have in life. Without gratitude, we can find ourselves becoming spoilt and rude, failing to see all the good that the people in our lives who love us bring. Failing to see all the great things that have happened to us, and keep happening to us. Sure, you might have had a little run of bad luck, but in the big picture, we’re all extremely lucky.
Meditate – Meditation can be an amazing way to start building your self-awareness and becoming more focused on your own mind and the world around you while challenging neuroticism and overthinking. Essentially, meditation is great tool for shutting your brain off and simply allowing yourself to relax, breathe and focus on the things that really matter.
Apply for Some New Jobs – Even if you don’t think you’ll get them, even if you think it’s a waste of time, send over a quick application and forget about it. Make a habit of this a couple times a week. You’ll always have the chance of getting some new exciting opportunity thrown your way when you do this regularly.
Journal – Journaling is useful because if you’re trying to do all this great stuff, you’re going to quickly lose track of it all without some note taking. Just spending a couple minutes every now and then scribbling down some ideas, progress or self-reflection will help you stay on the right path.
New Hobbies – Picking up a new hobby will help you step away from all the tough stuff and focus on something fun again.
Maintain Friendships – Too often, we let friendships fall by the wayside, especially when it comes to work and family, and this can be really disheartening, leaving you feeling alone and isolated. Don’t be afraid to be the one reaching out to the other party, you’ll always feel glad that you did.
