Saturday, October 29, 2011

Real Joy In Life

By Kathy Smith


Once in my life when I was really confused and I was most surely not full of real joy. My whole life had "turned out" just as I had imagined it would. I graduated school, I got a job and a nice place to live. I had friends, family, and a long-term relationship. Any time I looked to my future, it was filled with vivid, pleasant days. The part that I hadn't planned on was how strange it was to accomplish my goals. Once achieved, I didn't know what to do after that.

I began to feel unsatisfied and I couldn't pinpoint why. I tried all sorts of remedies: I switched from walking to jogging, I aquired candles to create a appartment "nest", I tried reading diverse books, yoga, and so on and on. As the days stacked up on each other, my turmoil mounted, as well as my days started to be hazier. My sense of time warped, each day seeming longer and more directionless as compared to the last. I thought about how I would actually find authentic happiness again. My sparkly future was today lack-luster. I had made the big mistake of thinking that my life had "turned out", rather than spotting that we all keep growing and challenge ourselves daily. Life is growth and human beings are a part of life. Life doesn't stay stagnant nor do we.

One warm day at the seaside, my entire purpose suddenly flipped and my life started in a whole new direction. As I walked past a lone woman walking in the yellow sand, a bolt of energy ran through me and I heard a voice say to me, "What if you could help individuals get over the thoughts and feelings that cause these people pain?" That question shattered the previous lens through which I viewed life. I now saw that I was to put my entire life to good use for other people. Despite the hot sun's rays on my skin, I got a chill, since I knew that I was back on my path to authentic happiness.

I saw that I had achieved objectives to get my own special, fundamental needs met: an education, a job, and a residence. But, whenever my life purpose flipped, it consequently switched my goals, also. For the first time, I observed that getting my own survival needs achieved was not how to appraise the quality of my well being. I recognized, down deep, the difference between generating value (money) and creating value which could lead to money. I knew that developing value was to be the emphasis of my next set of goals; it will bring an end to the months of uncertainty and confusion and I would find real happiness again.

It did not mean that all I'd done leading up to that moment in time was in vain, because, for me, learning how to earn money was an absolutely necessary prerequisite with regard to finding out how to create value. Everything prior to that moment was done which helped me to to achieve goals that I didn't even recognize I had. My mindset was reawakened, my lurking doubts were banished, and I was vitalized with my brand-new purpose - I felt authentic happiness once all over again.




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