Here's a quick challenge for you, and me, since this blog is entirely for me as it is for anyone else.
The next time you find yourself wanting something drastically different because you're not happy, pause and ask yourself if the purpose of acquiring that thing - new job, new relationship, new car, new house, new vacation, new whatever - is to make you feel better.
If it is, then please, please deploy some self-awareness. Has getting something new or different in the past ever filled the voids you're trying to fill? Look back on a time when you thought a big move, a big change, would make you happier. Even if it did, did that last? Or did you find yourself with a new set of problems? Or, the same problems, just a new circumstance?
My point is simple. Nothing we get from the outside will provide us that sense of lasting joy and fulfillment we all crave.
Do you really think that getting a relationship will fill a deep sense of loneliness? One thing I'm learning is that if we go into a relationship expecting to get, expecting the other person to make us feel better, we've already lost, and it's going to be a bumpy ride.
However, if we learn to start from a place of love, and ultimately have everything we already need inside of us, then all there is to do in a relationship is share our love and enjoy the ride.
It's the same concept I touched upon in a previous article of why happier people are better for the world. When I say happy, I mean having everything you need inside if you, so that you don't show up to any situation looking for something.
So, what's something you've been wanting for a while, perhaps because you think it'll make you happier? I'm not suggesting to not go after it. I'm just suggesting you evaluate whether or not that thing will give you what you're really looking for.
Live with substance!
Gabe
