What Is The Key To Happiness?

What Is The Key To Happiness and why are are so many of us looking for it?

What’s so damn hard about being happy?

Well maybe the answers are closer than we think.

This world we live in is full of noise and distraction. The lure of bright shiny things can be great fun but it keeps us from the truth.

It keeps us at our desks for way longer that we should.

Responsibilities and duties come ahead of family, children and other things that truly matter.

We give up our time to bosses and jobs ahead of the things that truly give us pleasure. Then all of a sudden we take the blinkers off and 60 years has passed us by.

There’s got to be a better way.

Well there is, but we’ve got to to tune out from these worldly distractions and stimulation and that includes probably the biggest culprit of all…

Technology.

There's Too Much Tech

There's way too much technology, noise and distraction in the world.

Yes, that's right, I said that.

I've spent all my working life installing and programing equipment of one sort or another so coming from a guy who loves technology, it might seem strange or even contradictory.

But it seems to me that the world is suffering from an inundation of technology for technology's sake and it is having a detrimental effect on people.

Or maybe this is just a symptom of a broader and deeper human issue.

We are completely absorbed by our technology and we hardly ever take down time, for some it's never, with the result that our technology and all that is associated with it rules our lives.

Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc… as well as forums and discussion groups. We can't get enough of them and I think it's getting worse.

Even though there are obvious positives, I believe all this connectivity is fundamentally destructive to positive human development.

Our heads are buried in laptops and mobile phones.

We have become disconnected from the real world.

New Year Resolutions Don't Work

We think that cutting something out of our lives or starting a new thing will make us happy so we make these stupid resolutions at the beginning of January, only to break them a few weeks later.

Stephen Shapiro says in this article, that only 8% of people who set new year resolutions achieve their goals.

In my opinion, it goes this way because our current circumstances are not painful enough for us to really want to do anything about it.

If we really want to experience happiness and success this year and every year after this, we have to have enough driving force within us to achieve it.

Most of us are too wishy washy when it comes to happiness and success. We will just about put up with any kind of shit as long as we can get in our cars and drive to work the next day.

It's the eternal low level humming of the refrigerator in the background that we subconsciously know is there and we consciously choose to ignore.

That is until it becomes too loud….

The Key To Happiness And Success

The irony is that as the noise eventually becomes too loud, we are presented with the gilt-edged opportunity to create that thing we've always wanted.

The key to happiness and success is born from our toughest times”] …and our toughest times come from taking chances taking the step when we can't see the ground under us.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. Martin Luther King

Playing it safe for fear of being on the outside is what leads to a life of mediocrity, and being so self absorbed with the need to be constantly “doing” stuff is a symptom of this same fear.

We spend so much time online and watching TV that the reality of life and all the goodness that it holds for us passes us by.

All of a sudden we are middle aged, our children are turning into young men and women and we suddenly realise that a whole chunk of our lives have passed and we've done fuck all except been preoccupied with work and other nonsense.

Or maybe we don't…

For some of us never come to realise it. And that's the real tragedy.

Now I don't mean to get too heavy on you, but this stuff is real. People like you and me are walking sleepers in the world and we are destroying this wonderful place in the process.

Not to mention destroying each other…

Do You Love Your Job?

You're going to spend about 100,000 hours at it over your lifetime so you'd better love it.

According to this article by Business Insider a couple years back, 80% of people hate their job. I don't think that has changed much.

In fact I'd say that figure doesn't go much below 80% ever. But that's just what I think.

Do I love my job?

Honestly, it's a means to an end. It serves a purpose while I build something else around what I do love.

I did the work I used to do for 25 years until I had enough. I didn't love it anymore so I had to leave it behind and move on.

Remember that bit above I just said? Well that's how it was for me. I had to make a change I had no choice, so I took the step.

You see we are like trees, we grow whether we want to or not.

It's inevitable that we progress, that's the nature of our existence. We can sit on the mundane fence for only so long, then POP! Something gives.

So What To Do…

Chill out.

We've got to take space for doing nothing. This is especially important if you are a creative person, or Storymaker as I call you.

I know that's difficult especially when that little voice in your head starts telling you; “get up! you should be doing something!”

You've got to train yourself to ignore anything that doesn't feel good to you. If you're feeling pressure to perform or deliver, feeling negative energy, then that's not good.

You've got to get some you time to just be whatever you wish, and not just for two weeks in the summer or a weekend away in the spring.

I mean every day.

Take time out to relax and do nothing. Meditation is a wonderful practice to develop and one that I would encourage.

The key to happiness for me is simply to switch off from the noise and get back in touch with ourselves.