This Is How You Find The Happiness You’ve Been Looking For

Are you happy? I mean are you truly happy? The road to happiness and self-fulfilment is one of life’s most challenging. Many a theory has been contrived over what this entails and means. Many of these however also come with flaws.

While I may not promise the solution to the problems that lie within such theory’s or suggested methods of attaining happiness, allow me to add some food for thought in order to help tackle this life challenge – that is, the road to happiness.

First and foremost, happiness is not a thing. It is not that new Ferrari or even your dream boyfriend. Happiness is a sense of being. It and self-satisfaction are interconnected and live it exists within oneself. Without one, the other cannot occur.

To be truly happy, you must first believe in yourself and find conviction in your own self-beliefs. Do not feel obligation to question or validate yourself for the sake of others. Find comfort in your own skin. Those that are worthy of your investment will come. Connectedness between people is not created through make-believe personas, but through each person’s own genuine sense of self and their compatibility with others.

Such notions as I have suggested do not come into being without practice however. I myself have been many things and many personas over the course of my lifetime. I have lived those make-believe personas of which I speak and found they all lead to failure. Such as I am now, having returned from a much overdue sabbatical to Europe, which has had me refine my own sense of being and much improve my own self-satisfaction and genuine happiness.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs lists self-actualisation as the pinnacle of human needs – the realisation of who you really are. Recognising this naturally requires some difficult truths to be realised within the self. Don’t allow yourself to succumb to trivial notions such as paying your bills or what others will think when thinking about these. Once you have realised what it is that you truly seek in order to attain happiness, ask yourself why it is that this is what you need from life and what it is that is preventing you from reaching those steps towards being truly happy. Only then once you have done this can you begin to go about strategising as to how you will achieve it.

26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt once said, “With self-discipline, almost anything is possible”, so before you begin to succumb to the idea that the goal of attaining true happiness is impossible or unrealistic, I can assure you that it is not. It is merely a matter of refinement. It is a not a matter of instant or quick gratification, but rather a gradual process of ridding oneself of the barriers to it. These could be toxic people that you find yourself gravitating to, the job you’re currently in or any number of things.

So go, be true to yourself, grab the bull that is life by the horns and don’t be afraid to challenge it. Afford yourself the opportunity reach self-actualisation and be truly happy, truly satisfied in the person you really are, not that person you pretend to be. Do things because you want to do them, not because you have to do them. Live life how you want to, not how others want you to. Others’ perceptions and demands of you are dynamic and do not share the same list, it is a losing battle to live based on these. Live for yourself and by your own creed.