Writing is difficult enough in and of itself, so the last thing we need is to sit down at our desks (or coffee shop tables) and feel miserable before we even think of the first word. Here’s some good advice on being positive from…aw, you guessed it, The Positivity Blog.
7 Small Habits That Will Steal Your Happiness
by Henrik Edberg
“Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy.”
Wayne Dyer
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
Marcus Aurelius
It is usually pretty easy to become a happier person.
It is also quite easy to rob yourself of your own happiness. To make yourself more miserable and add a big bowl of suffering to your day. It is a common thing, people do it every day all over the world.
So this week I’d like to combine these two things. I want to share 7 happiness stealing habits that I have had quite a bit of trouble with in my own daily life (and I know from the emails I get that many of you do too).
But I’d also like to add what you can do instead if you find yourself being stuck in one of these destructive habits.
1. Going for a daily swim in a sea of negative voices.
This one can be quite subtle.
You just go around in your daily life like you usually do. Hang out with the same people. Listen to the same podcasts or radio shows, watch the same old TV-shows and read the usual blogs, books and magazines.
But what influence do these things have over your thinking and the limits you set for yourself and what you feel you deserve in life?
What to do instead:
Make a list of the 5 people you hang out with the most and the 5 media sources you spend most time on during your week.
Then ask yourself this for each of these 10 things/people: is this one dragging me down or lifting me up in life?
Consider spending less time with the ones that drag you down (or cut them out completely) and to spend more of your time with the people and sources that lift you up and make you feel good, motivated etc.
If you have trouble getting started with this one, then go smaller. Take a few minutes to think about what one person or source that has the biggest negative impact on you. And how you can start to spend less time with it/him/her this week….
Back in pre-history, AKA in the third quarter of the 20th century, one of my favorite comics was Tomb of Dracula, created by my writer-producer bud Gerry Conway and Gene Colan, one of comics best artists, whom, unfortunately, I never got to know. (He died in 2011. Oh, and he also was part of the team that created the vampire-hunting character Blade)