Be Happy, It’s All Only Temporary

As the reader I am, I was reading Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson yesterday and if you are anyone who likes to read self-help books, I would definitely recommend this smart and quick read.

When you think about life and the challenges we often face, how do you interpret them? Do you see what is negative as something that is a horrible experience that automatically makes life suck? How do you interpret what happens to you? Or in other words, how often do negative events, impact the quality of your life and your happiness?

I thought about this yesterday as I read this book and I was intrigued by Carlson’s take on what happens to us in our lives because I truly believe that if we treat events in our lives as experiences and go on with the mindset that everything is temporary, we are more likely to stay happy.

Think about the times you thought you would absolutely never survive. A horrible breakup, an identity crisis, financial struggles, a mental health crisis.

The list of what we may face in this life is endless and when we are in it, it is so easy to look at it and think we are cursed and destined for negative life experiences.

We submit to our circumstances so much so, that when we do experience happy moments, we can’t fully bask in the moment and enjoy it because we are stuck on the times that weren’t happy.

Just so you know, 100% of your terrible and worst life moments were survived. You survived! You are here to tell the tale and you can say to yourself, “Man, I truly went through that and made it to the other side.”

Don’t think for a second that what you are facing today is permanent and that it is your life because what you face whether good or bad, is an experience and that is all life is, a series experiences.

When you look at everything in this sense, it will be so much easier for you to look forward to when things will be better and when you do experience those moments that make life worth living.

Today, I look back in my life at times I thought I would literally never survive, or even be alive today for that matter and I see myself today as a person who still struggles, but is in 10 times a better place than I was before.

So the next time you find yourself in a slump, or you struggle to see yourself moving past where you are today or when you look at your life and see it as all negative, remember that you had good experiences amidst all the bad and that hard times are fleeting.

Life is fleeting and so is what you will face today. 

Treat life as mere experiences, and see how much more hopeful you will be. Happiness is in store for you and it is merely on the other side of this experience.