Happiness Requires Effort
* Today's article was submitted by our monthly contributor Elise Smith (a.k.a Sheila) who has several books available on Amazon.
Elise invites our readers to reach out to her via FaceBook.
Today, she explains how our mindset can impact every goal we have.
“There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!”
Insects and animals are always busy; preparing for winter, getting ready for spring, washing themselves, cleaning their nest, feeding their young and doing the things that animals and insects do. They are a hundred percent alive and involved. They also appear to be particularly content.
We can learn from animals. To be happy we need to be industrious. When we let things slide, it costs us. Things don’t improve when we neglect them. Things only improve with effort.
Our attitude to effort is important.
We need to put in the effort because we WANT to do it; because it is our privilege and joy to learn, to test ourselves, to experiment and experience. The mistake that many people make is to work only for end results and not for the joy of working. Then, if they don’t get the results they want, they are disappointed. One needs to delight in their own ability to experience new things, to refine your skills and rejoice in your capacity to preserve.
Adopt the attitude of:
“I’ll enjoy what I’m doing for the sake of doing it. I’ll experience my own aliveness while I’m doing it and focus my full attention on my task,”
...then any results will be a bonus.
“The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.”
Getting to hung up on results takes us out of the present moment. It is possible to be always focusing on what is ahead and not on what we are doing. This approach removes us from the enjoyment of the present moment. Detaching ourselves a little from the results, enables us to enjoy what we are doing for the sake of it.
Be in control of your own mind. Work for the love of working, of being involved, then there is no problem. Results will always come. If the results are delayed or don’t come when you expect them, you don’t let it wreck your whole week, or year… results always come.
Do you work for the love of working? Then decide to. It is like being happy; it is a decision.
“The secret being happy
is not in doing what one likes,
but in liking what one does.”
~ James Barrie
When we change, things change.
A lot of people spend their whole life hoping that things will get better. Things get better as we get better. Things change when we change and not before.
“Unless you change how you are,
you will always have
what you’ve got!”
~ James Rohn
What we have in our life stems from what we are. For things to get better, we have to get better. Today will be much like yesterday unless we put in the effort.
Put all you have into what you do.
If you put all you have into whatever you do, you won’t eliminate failure. If you put everything you have got into everything you do, you won’t eliminate disappointment. So why bother? ...The answer is: “For your own self-respect.”
When your personal philosophy is, “I will do my best, regardless,” you will always stand tall in your own estimation.
Losing hurts, but it hurts even more when you realize that you haven’t done your best.
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Thank you, Elise, for this thought-provoking article :)
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