Your 2013 Resolution: Be Happy!
What’s your New Year’s resolution? To lose the kilos you’ve put on over the holiday period? To find that special someone? Travel to that country you’ve always wanted to visit or to make that success-making career move? Before you splash out on that gym membership or sign-up on that dating site, take a moment to think about what it is that always brings what we want to us in time. It costs nothing yet is priceless. It can be elusive but is there waiting for us if we just bother to look deeply enough for it. Yes – it’s happiness!
Despite what many people believe, happiness doesn’t lie with being successful at what you do, owing a designer wardrobe, a big house or high-end car or even in winning the heart of that person you’ve been longing for. If you pin your happiness on any of these things then you automatically put yourself in a position to end up unhappy as if you happiness lies in something or someone outside of yourself, you could end up losing it. Yes, all these things can contribute to our happiness, but they are not happiness itself. Happiness is a choice we make. A decision to follow our passion or bliss.
The problem many of us have in following our passion is that we’ve been told we’re being selfish. Truly happy people are the least selfish people on the planet – because they’re happy and content they want to do whatever they can to make other people happy too. So the pursuit of happiness is actually an unselfish act! When you are in a position where you are happy you operate from a position of strength and love. Not of need and disempowerment.
So, what makes you happy? Obviously the answer is different for everybody. It usually has a simple answer as what makes us happy is the ability to express ourselves in a way that gives us pleasure. It can be as simple as having the time to read a book, decorating your home, sewing, walking, pursuing a hobby that uses your creativity, being with friends or family, spending time with your pet, studying, playing sport.
When we concentrate just on getting in touch with what makes us happy (and if you’ve lost touch with this then clues can be found back in your childhood as to what this was!), a funny thing happens. All those goals we had that we were striving so hard to attain because we thought they would make us happy either manifest without us having to do anything about them or we decide we don’t need them any more! Happiness is the magnetic force in the universe for attracting what you want.
So when you’re drawing up your list of New Year’s resolutions, put ‘Happiness’ at the top. You don’t need to pursue it either- don’t forget, it’s right where you’re not looking – inside you all along!
