When Searching For Happiness, Avoid These 3 Common Mistakes
Lessons learned from searching gone wrong
Whether we admit it or not, we are all on the same mission in life.
We are in the pursuit of happiness.
Depending on who you are, it’ll come to you in different forms at different times. Some of these forms may seem familiar:
Love
Power
Money
Status
Peace
Attention
Acceptance
Regardless, if you want to find happiness, it is best to avoid these common mistakes.
Let me help you save time and effort on your journey.
1. You are relying on someone else
This is a mistake we are all guilty of and we’ve made the mistake more than once.
This will usually happen when you get into a relationship before you are happy with yourself. You start to depend on your partner for happiness, and when you realize it’s not possible, you are disappointed.
Many people will repeat this loop over and over again too.
This doesn’t only happen in relationships though.
It’s common for people to rely on their parents or friends for happiness. They know they’ll be happy when they see them, so they see them all the time forgetting about spending time with themself.
And then there are the ones waiting on their boss to give them approval or a promotion, the “cool kids” to accept them or their co-workers to invite them out.
At the end of the day, you need to find happiness in yourself. Don’t rely on others - it will only lead to disappointment.
2. Expecting it to last forever
Happiness is not a destination. It’s nice to say we are searching for happiness or are in pursuit of it… I say it all the time!
The problem with this phrasing though is that it makes it sound like it is a place that when you get to, you can stay forever.
That’s not how happiness works though. Happiness comes and goes.
You will get sad again.
You will get angry again.
You will grieve again.
These are all things that happen to us because we are human. But, feeling those “negative” emotions doesn’t mean happiness won’t come again.
Happiness always comes back.
3. Being too hard on yourself
The best way to prevent happiness from happening is to be hard on yourself.
If you keep blaming yourself for mistakes of the past, holding in guilt or shame, you will struggle to be happy.
Being too hard on yourself will stop you from loving yourself and loving yourself is the easiest way to find happiness.
Loving yourself will allow you to not only be happy with yourself but also with others (without relying on them for it).
Loving yourself will help you through the hard times when you are grieving, feeling sad or angry.
Loving yourself is the key to happiness.
Forgive yourself. Stop blaming yourself. Be love.
Closing remarks
I’ve made all 3 of these mistakes several times. The truth is, we are all works in progress. As much as we try to avoid mistakes, we will always make more.
The goal is, to learn from these mistakes and keep moving forward with an optimistic attitude.
By doing that, and focusing on truly loving ourselves and others, happiness will keep coming.
Thanks for reading