How many times have we felt hopeless with life because we simply had too much useless time? I know it has happened in my own life. When I get bored, I get down, and I only get out of it when I start to get busy again.
The thing is, we’ve got to identify this pattern and stay busy to keep our mood raised. Find a hobby. Volunteer your free time. Learn to cook. Do whatever you like. There’re endless possibilities for something to do if we take the time to look.
- Do what you love: You must find that calling that you were meant to do and go for it irrespective of the pay. If you get good at anything there’ll always be people who are willing to pay it. This way you won’t be counting down the years left in your career, but counting up the years that you’ve been doing it and hoping for more. There’s no retirement for me, I’ll do this till the day I die. There’s more to life than just getting by.
- Have what you need: Things make us unhappy, they may be exciting at first but once the thrill reduces you’re just left with bills causing even more stress than before. If you minimize and simplify your life one step at a time you’ll create more freedom and free time to do the things that you enjoy. Money doesn’t equal happiness, it’s more just a tool to help you get the things you need. Don’t just buy things that you want, it’s a never-ending cycle. There’s always another gadget to buy, another subscription to join, only causing you to fall further into debt and making it so you’ve got to work more.
- Help other people: They say if you want to be happy, focus all of your attention on making other people happy, and if you want to be miserable focus only on making yourself happy. We like to think we’re independent but we’re interdependent beings.
If I put you on a desert island with nothing but your computer and Facebook you would end up being extremely lonely and unhappy over time; we need each other.
Compassion, or concern for others, helps to civilize us and join us making us feel like we’re part of something bigger and, in return, making us feel better about ourselves and happier in the process.
Just start in small ways to care about others. You can train your mind to become anything you want, it just happens slowly over time.
Set your purpose to be a more compassionate and caring person and as time goes by you’ll become just that and end up a much happier person than when you began.
