Читать книгу I Took the Only Path To See You - Jon Fisher - Страница 13

If everyone wants to be happy, why are so many people unhappy? The answer is simple. Most people never take the time to understand how to be happy. If you don't know how to be happy, how can you possibly be happy? That's like trying to fish without knowing what a fish looks like or where fish even live. If you don't know what a fish is or where to find it, you're never going to catch any. Likewise, if you never understand happiness, you're never going to be happy in more than a superficial way.

People spend more time planning a vacation than they spend deciding what would make them happy. When you don't know what will make you happy, you'll risk searching for happiness anywhere and everywhere. When you do this, chances are extremely good that you'll never find it.

Imagine if you live in New York and you want to move to another city. The smart thing to do would be to decide what type of place you would want to live, then research different parts of the country to see which areas most closely match the criteria you set for yourself. Not only does this take time, it also means defining what's most important to you. Sadly, because of the time and effort required, most people never do this.

Rather than define what they want and then look for a place that provides that, most people will just jump in a car and start driving in whatever direction looks most promising at the moment. Instead of defining criteria for the best place to live for them, they'll just wander from place to place, never quite being happy where they're at but quite never knowing which direction they should go either.

Sound familiar?

The first step to happiness is knowing what you want out of life, just like the first step to traveling anywhere is knowing where you want to go. While this may sound simple, it's actually the hardest step of all. Not only must you imagine a brighter future for yourself, but you must believe it's possible for you to reach it.

If you don't believe your life can be dramatically better, you won't bother pursuing it. If you believe in a brighter future but don't believe you can achieve it, you also won't bother pursuing it.

Taking the first step to happiness involves faith – faith in yourself and faith in the world. Faith means embracing an idea, often with no facts or proof to support it. Yet before you can take that first step, you must have faith, and accepting that unknown can be the hardest step of all.

Deciding what you want involves taking a chance. The moment you imagine a brighter future for yourself, it's far too easy to tell yourself you can't have it, you don't deserve it, you're too young (or too old), you don't have enough education, you don't know how to get it, or you're not good enough for whatever reason.

The biggest obstacle to happiness is none other than yourself. The biggest obstacle in your way isn't your parents, your neighbors, people around you, the economy, the government, or the world you live in. The biggest obstacle in your way is staring at you in the mirror every morning. You are your own worst enemy. Yet, you are also your own best chance – but only if you believe you can do it.

So give yourself permission to dream big, and don't limit your ideas. Remember, it doesn't cost anything to let your imagination run wild, but if you choose puny dreams, you'll risk costing yourself a wonderful life if you had only set your sights bigger.

Think back when you were a kid and you could dream anything you wanted, from becoming the first astronaut on Mars to scoring the winning touchdown in the final seconds of the Super Bowl. Forget about being “practical” or “realistic.” Dream big, and don't settle for a watered down, diluted version of your dream. If you knew you absolutely could not fail, what would you want to do? You may never achieve your wildest dreams, but by making an effort, you'll go much farther than if you had never done anything at all.