Be Yourself
Be yourself.
It sounds so simple, but in my estimation it is sort of like riding a bike. You see people doing it and it appears so easy. Turns out, at least when you are first learning, it isn’t. Then comes the AH-HA moment; that wonderful moment in time when you finally “get it.”
Turns out, being yourself is not just a good idea. Turns out that being yourself is essential. Turns out that being yourself may in fact be the key to happiness (in my opinion, it is). How do I know this? I spent a long time being who I thought I should be and not necessarily who I wanted to be. Luckily, the two versions of myself are not all that different. I don’t have an angel on one shoulder and a pitchfork weilding devil on the other. The two versions however were divergent enough to have an effect on my personality and my ability to find happiness in virtually anything I engaged myself in.
Are you acting like the person who you truly are? All the time? Be honest.
Why in the world do we do this? Is it the outside pressure of the world at large? Is it a lack of confidence? Is is worry – worry about your job, your family, money?
These problems can all simply melt away.
When you are yourself you can say and do the things that make you truly happy. When you are yourself the anxiety of neurotically obsessiving over things that don’t matter (what people think of you, what you should look and act like, what car you should drive, what activities you should enjoy) disappears. When you are yourself, the only person that determines your happiness is you.
The ability to find happiness in this life is not something you have to earn. This is a God-given right. Nothing, not anyone or anything, can take this away from you. We live in a world with a seemingly infinite amount of attention grabbing distractions and outside pressures. The world is noisy and it is getting louder everyday. Attmpting to conform to every social norm, current fashion, stereotype, and everyone else’s opinion is not only exhasuting – it is ludacris. It is impossible.
Make yourself happy first. Everyone around you will be happier because of it.
I read an article a while back that discussed the differences between the way negative and positive feelings spread from one person to another. Although I cannot recall all of the specifics, I do remember the most significant finding of the study that was conducted. A negative feeling, displayed with either a negative attitude, a complaint, or a frown, would spread to a handful of people through a chain of personal interaction. A positive feeling on the other hand, seemed to spread like wild fire reaching as many as five times the number of people. Are you convinced yet? I am.
Be yourself.
trehvoro 