10 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Live A Happy Life
By Gene P. Knight; Gene’s photo posted on his Facebook page by Tonya Marie Aldridge Humphries
[Editor’s Note: I believe the unedited, insightful article below was written by my dear friend, Gene Patrick Knight, who crossed over November 4, 2020. It speaks of challenges Gene and I discussed over the years. He mastered every one.
The article was on his computer, dated September 28, 2019, written in his frequent double negative style, and with similar grammatical and punctuation errors that appeared in drafts he submitted for a newsletter that we published together many years ago. Gene also copied and saved to his computer thoughtful writings by other authors, but credited the source. Should the reader find this article should be attributed to another author, please add your comment and source below, and I’ll credit it appropriately. Enjoy!]
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Happiness has many different meanings and interpretations. Each and every one of us sees it differently but we all chase it and we all believe that it’s like a virus that we need to catch to fully understand what it is and how it feels to be a happy person.
Surely, you are exhausted as happiness might sometimes seem unobtainable, mysterious, and inexplicable. Many questions might be hovering over your head making you have sleepless nights, a tired brain, and a restless soul.
No need to deny this because you are definitely not the only one. We have all without exceptions tried hard to find a definition for the word ‘’happiness’’, but unfortunately only a few were successful.
I must admit that I was once among those people. I had sleepless nights, I cried myself to sleep while trying to figure out the meaning of happiness.
I have wondered many times why things tend to work against our plans, and why the people we love leave us in the middle of the road, why not all of our dreams come true, and why we have to suffer when we should be happy instead.
And guess what? I realized that whether they are things or people, they come in and out of our lives for a reason and a very good one. I’ve also realized that life is simple and it’s always our choice to be happy or miserable. This might sound like nonsense but just think about it.
How many times you have believed that your happiness is, for example, one particular person, but then life surprised you with another crossing your path. You might have hated life at that particular moment and even wished you were dead but then you were so thankful for the gift you were blessed with.
Trust me, there is a hidden force that guides us through this journey and you just have to trust it to be happy. When things go wrong, don’t blame yourself or cry over what was not meant to stay in your life. What’s coming is much greater.
Learn to love what you have and appreciate the blessings you were given. Only this way, you will be able to live a happy life and find answers to your questions. Still, there are many things that you should stop doing now if you want a happy life.
1 STOP DOUBTING YOURSELF
Yes, you read it right! It’s time to stop doubting yourself and start treating yourself properly. Trust me, it all starts with the way you see yourself. If you always underestimate yourself and your abilities, you will never be able to achieve great things in life and therefore you will never be able to feel happy and satisfied.
Doubting yourself can harm you at all levels and you will end up looking miserable and begging for people’s pity. You only live once. So, it’s either you live with pride or just die. Never say never as long as you can, you will and that’s all.
It’s okay to feel weak sometimes, you are still a human but never ever let that feeling control you or your life. Be brave to stand with your head up high, continue walking even if it’s dark, and you will surely find the light and you will make it to your destination.
2 STOP FOLLOWING THE CROWD
If you want to live a happy and peaceful life, you have to stop imitating the crowd and following them. Your life is your journey and only you who should decide how to live it. Never lose yourself in the middle of others’ opinions, ideas, and way of life.
Always do what you see is right and not what others say to be right even if this means walking alone in one direction while the rest of the world walks on the other. No matter what happens, always stay true to yourself and never care about the world as long as you believe that you are doing the right thing.
People who are able to remain authentic and true to themselves are the only ones that can experience the joy of life and how it feels to be happy. Listen to your heart and your intuitions, they will never betray you as long as you are true and pure! Be unique, be yourself!
3 NEVER SKIP THE GYM
Taking good care of your mental and physical health is one of the successful and magical formulas that will help you have a happy life. This way, constantly and regularly working out at the gym will help you clear your mind and rest your body.
It will also increase your self-confidence and energy, which will eventually make it easier for you to chase your goals and achieve them.
That’s not everything, as staying active can protect you from developing many serious diseases such as obesity, heart diseases, diabetes, and the list is way too long! So, the more you work out, the healthier and happier you will be.
However, if your monthly budget doesn’t allow you to subscribe to a gym, worry not! You can just put on your trainers and go for lovely walks in the fresh air.
4 STOP MISSING OPPORTUNITIES
Sometimes, life can offer you amazing opportunities and this includes people and things that you won’t find elsewhere. These opportunities are often of gold and you might not be lucky enough to get them another time.
Hence, learn to grab these opportunities with your both hands and watch your entire world changing. Sometimes all you need is to have the courage to say ‘’Yes’’ to the universe and accept its gifts. You can never know what surprises life is saving for you?
Maybe this opportunity is much better than the ones you had in the past and if you had hard luck in the past this doesn’t mean that you will have it every time. Always dare to trust the world one more time as it will definitely surprise you!
5 STOP OVER ANALYSING
It’s true that you should learn from your past experiences and remember them so that you will be able to make better decisions in the future, but should you always remember that life is quite simple and over-analyzing things will only ruin your life.
Yes, you read it right! It will ruin your life and deprive you of grabbing new opportunities and keeping you away from many possibilities in life.
Take time to understand your mistakes and learn from them in order to be able to have a better, new beginning but never ever dwell on the past and in over-analyzing it. You will end up losing the present moment and the future too.
6 FAILURE SHOULD NEVER SCARE YOU
If you didn’t fail 100 times before achieving success and becoming a winner, then, you don’t deserve it! You will never be able to taste how sweet is victory if you don’t know how bitter is failure. So, if you fall, worry not!
This doesn’t mean that you are bad but it just means that you are taking the stairs to achieve your goals. Failures are just steps toward great success. So, don’t be afraid to fail and if it happens that you fall down, take a deep breath, and continue walking.
What matters is that you should never give up walking no matter how hard you hit the ground. Believe in yourself and always walk with your head up high.
7 DON’T SKIP YOUR FAMILY
Achieving your dreams, becoming successful, and making lots of money is important but having all this alone is never enough. Success is not the only happiness you should chase but your family too, say, your parents, spouse, kids, best friends, and loved ones.
Life without these people is meaningless and without them by your side, you will never be able to enjoy your great accomplishments. Be grateful to their support, love them back, cherish them, make them happy, find time for them in your busy schedule, and let them know how much you need them in your life.
Make your heart a comfortable place they can seek when they need to feel safe, happy, and loved. Life is too short to spend it away from them.
8 NEVER STOP READING
Whether you are 20 years old or 60, never stop reading! The latter is not only a healthy exercise for your brain but also for your soul. Reading on a regular basis even for 30 minutes a day will help you be a better person.
It will also help you grow smarter and broaden many horizons. Luckily, today there are many fun and interesting applications that allow you to read any book you want with one single click.
Also, there are many online libraries that offer a wide range of interesting books, magazines, newspapers, and more! Your time is precious. So, don’t waste it doing useless things that won’t benefit you!
9 STOP BLAMING OTHERS FOR YOUR MISTAKES
We all make mistakes and that’s not something you should be ashamed of! what’s embarrassing is making mistakes and never learning from them or even worse blaming others for mistakes you have done.
By doing this, you will never be able to learn from your mistakes or even achieve success. You will remain a prisoner of your negative thoughts and the hate-blame game that you have created.
Instead, free yourself from these chains and accept the fact that everyone is prone to making mistakes. Increase your chances of success by fully taking credit of your blunders.
10 STOP SAYING YES
Never say ‘’yes’’ just to please others. If what you want to say is ‘’no’’ then say it and the world won’t crumble. Always do what you can do and never allow others to make you say or do what you don’t want.
Always remember that no one in this world has the right to make you do what you wish not and it’s always you who can decide what you can or can’t do.
