I think we’ve all found ourselves in a situation when we know we did everything we could and we were still unable to feel content, complete and happy. We attribute our failures to the people surrounding us. It’s much easier to blame them for our unhappiness than take our own responsibility for that.
Do you have any idea why this is so? Well, if you try to find the reasons for your failures a little bit deeper within yourself, you’ll realize that in reality, it’s you who are getting in the way of your happiness and success.
It’s you who are unable to decide what your priorities are.
You keep doing things by following your old habits which have often proved ineffective.
You don’t learn from your mistakes but you reproach yourself and try to forget about them.
You waste your life living in fear, anxiety, and worries.
Instead of removing, you’re creating more obstacles in your life.
The reason for all this is that more or less all of us are struggling with these 3 impediments to our happiness: the outer world, negative thoughts, and loneliness.
1. We focus more on the outside world than our inner thoughts and emotions.
I believe we have all experienced this. We put all our thoughts and energy into finding ways to earn more money and acquire a high social status. While doing all this we never consider our inner thoughts. We forget to follow our intuition which often gives us signs about whether something is or isn’t the right thing to do.
2. We often have negative thoughts.
Having negative thoughts too often can badly influence both our physical and mental health. If you’re constantly looking for bad things around you or predicting that you’ll find yourself in bad situations in the future, you’ll be less motivated to take any action. For example, if you think that you aren’t going to get the job you recently went on an interview for or that your new boyfriend/girlfriend is going to dump you, you’ll only make yourself feel more frustrated, depressed and unworthy.
So, what you should do is – change your mindset! Try to concentrate on the good things in your life, like all your abilities, virtues and successes. Try to find ways how to approach and remove all the obstacles that are getting in your way to happiness.
3. We often feel lonely.
It seems like we’re seeing loneliness everywhere around us. We can’t help but feel shocked by the fact that one can have many friends and be surrounded by people all the time and still feel lonely. Sounds familiar, right?
To overcome the feelings of loneliness, you have to know the causes first. One reason for which many people feel lonely is that they can’t make friends easily. Maybe they think they’re very different from others or they are afraid that they might get rejected or deserted.
No matter what the reason, you have to learn how to be more open about yourself and let people get to know the real you. You need to start trusting other people more and share your experiences with them.
So, if you want to feel better about yourself and have a good quality of life, you have to detox your mind of all the negative thoughts which deter you from achieving personal and professional success and happiness.
Here are 5 important steps you should follow in order to learn how to embrace a positive outlook on life:
1. Allow good things to happen.
How can you be happy if you’re afraid to let good things happen? You need to find the courage to do the things you said no to or avoided doing before. You have to meet new people and experience new things.
The best moments of your life aren’t given to you by somebody else but they happen when you try your best to achieve something which is difficult and important.
You’re the master of your own life. You’re the one who decides what actions you’ll take to achieve something.
Try doing the things you’re passionate about right now. Don’t postpone them until later wondering whether they are the right things to do or not.
Learn to live your life spontaneously and accept the opportunities life has to offer to you.
2. Set your goals.
If you feel disoriented and you can’t decide what your priorities are, the best thing to do is set your goals. They can be something you want to achieve at a personal or professional level or spending more time with your family and friends. Your goals will keep you motivated to work hard and eliminate all obstacles so that you can achieve success.
To accomplish your goals you have to be well-organized and disciplined. You also have to develop a rational plan- a plan you know you’ll be able to follow every single day and won’t let anything to distract you from it.
One more thing: don’t forget to add to your priority list the goal to take more care of your mental and physical health.
3. Control your doubt.
You often have doubts whether to do something or not. For example, you were unable to decide whether to accept the new job offer or whether to buy something at an expensive price or wait for a better bargain. All this can be really frustrating
To prevent this, try to imagine the possible failures in advance when you have to make important decisions. In this way, you ’ll be more prepared to handle the situation appropriately.
4. Learn from your own mistakes.
We all make mistakes. They are an important part of our lives. You mustn’t be too hard on yourself when you make a mistake. Instead, use them wisely so that you know how to do things right in the future, and take them as a sign that you need to work harder to achieve the things you want.
Life is teaching you lessons through your mistakes and you just have to be willing to see that.
5. Act now.
If you have problems, solve them now – don’t wait for somebody else to do that for you.
If someone has hurt your feelings, tell them right away -don’t bottle up your emotions.
Deal with your problems now and you’ll see how confident and content you’ll feel.
“Choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude is going to determine how you’re going to live your life.”– Joel Osteen
Image: ruby james