The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is – here’s the clincher – boredom.
Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all.
I’m often asked how I define “success.” It’s an overused term, but I fundamentally view this elusive beast as a combination of two things – achievement and appreciation.
On the Jar Of Awesome: There is a mason jar on my kitchen counter with JAR OF AWESOME in glitter letters on the side. Anything something really cool happens in a day, something that made me excited or joyful, doctor’s orders are to write it down on a slip of paper and put it in this mason jar.
On the Jar Of Awesome: When something great happens, you think you’ll remember it 3 months later, but you won’t.
On the Jar Of Awesome: Cultivate the habtis of putting something in every day. Can’t think of anything? “I didn’t die today!” is a reliable winner.
The key to not feeling rushed is remembering that lack of time is actually lack of priorities.
I leaned against the wall and slid down until I was sitting on the floor. I closed my eyes, smiled, and took a deep breath. Things were about to change. Everything was about to change.
If you don’t regularly appreciate the small wins, you will never appreciate the big wins. They’ll all fall through your fingers like sand as you obsess on the next week, the next to-do, the next thing to fix.
Friction points and single points of failure happen in any given day potentially, so think in a concise, intelligent way. Out of five items to do, which one would make you satisfied with your entire day?
The question no one really seemed to be answering was: ‘Why do it all in the first place? What’s the pot of gold that justifies spending the best years of you life hoping for happiness in the last?’.
Look for the good, practice finding the good, and you’ll see it more often.
For anything approaching happiness, you have to want what you already have.
