According to Martin Seligman, the creator of the concept of positive psychology, about 60% of people’s happiness is directly related to their genetics and the environment where they live and the other 40% of their happiness depends on them – their beliefs and thoughts.
Given that people can also have an impact on the environment that surrounds them, we can definitely say that we create the happiness in our life. Each of us can control and manage our habits and these habits pay a significant role in the happiness in our lives. A very important element of managing habits is mindfulness.
The following is a list of 7 habits that can take happiness away from you:
1. Working a Job That Doesn’t Provide Any Joy
As you are probably aware, American are among the most overworked individuals on the planet. In addition, they are also among the nations that are most dissatisfied with their jobs. A study conducted by Gallup has shown that 7 out of 10 Americans are actively disengaged or simply disengaged at the workplace.
It is very likely that you believe that work is not fun and entertaining. But, how about a job that provides engagement? Your job should be engaging. In case you want to live a happier life, you have to think about this.
Working a job that doesn’t provide any joy and satisfaction other than a paycheck at the end of the month will eventually lead to unhappiness and frustration. In case you are in a situation like this, don’t think that this is something that you should accept and embrace just because many others are in a similar position. Opt for a job that will fulfill you at a personal level.
2. Competing/Comparing to Other People
According to Mark Twain – the comparison is the death of joy. It doesn’t really matter whether you are analyzing someone’s job, physical appearance, car value, house size, income or anything similar, the comparison and analysis you make is a bad thing to do because you will end up unhappy.
Just like in the case of other emotions, people tend to compare themselves to other people. This behavior is both natural and damaging.
The good news is that you can learn how to become mindful about it and protect yourself from the negative effects. For instance, you can invest in mindful awareness of your success and progress.
3. Letting Worry Control Your Thoughts and Actions
It is a good idea to be a little bit worried because this approach makes you cautious. However, if you allow worrying to control your actions and thoughts that are definitely bad for your happiness. Constant worry won’t get you anywhere and it can ruin your ambitions.
In many cases, the worry is actually a side effect of people’s focus on an event that has created pain and dissatisfaction in their lives in the past. If you are worried for a reason like this, just let it go. We can’t change the past. This is the only way to feel happy again.
4. Believing That Chasing Pleasures Will Make You Happy
Chasing pleasures can’t deliver long-lasting fulfillment and happiness. Dr. Martin Seligman has pointed out that there are three types of happy lives. The first one is a life of engagement. In this type of happy life, people find a life in their love, work, parenting, and leisure.
The second is a pleasant life where people are focused on experiencing as many pleasures as possible. Finally, there is a meaningful life, a life which requires acknowledgment of the highest strengths you have and using these strengths to achieve something larger than yourself.
According to Dr. Seligman, chasing pleasures won’t provide any kind of long-lasting fulfillment. So, an individual must also look for a life of engagement and a meaningful life too.
5. Being too Serious Over Unwelcome Thoughts
Having brainpower that exceeds the power of the most powerful computer in the world is definitely a blessing, but it can also be considered as some sort of curse too. If you have a great brainpower, you will have excellent productivity, great ability to solve problems and meeting or even exceeding the demands of life.
However, people have a tendency to overthink about many things in their lives and as a result of that many of them often develop negative thoughts. Keep in mind that you are not a simple summarization of all the thoughts in your head. Negative thoughts are just fake news – misleading and undependable.
You should never think that that you can’t achieve some goal because you are not smart, brave or good enough because you are who you are and who you were meant to be. Every individual can do great things.
6. Ignoring Your Passions
If you ignore your passions, you ignore of the most important gifts of life – doing and enjoying the things you love. Ignoring these things usually comes as a result of continuous stress present in your life like money, work, bills and other things that are usually accompanying modern lifestyle.
In case you can’t enjoy your passion for any reason, you should at least try to make it a small part of your life. Listen to your heart, respect your intuition and follow your purpose. Don’t forget that in order to enjoy passions in your life, you usually don’t need a lot of money. The most important thing is to make the effort. Money can’t buy happiness!
7. Postponing Things
When you have to complete a task that you don’t like instead of working on something you really enjoy, you definitely won’t feel good. However, finishing these time-consuming and dull tasks can increase your happiness in the long run.
The procrastination research group has conducted a survey and concluded that over 94% people (the survey included 10,000 individuals) confirmed that procrastination has a negative impact on their happiness. In addition, almost 20% of them said that the impact was very negative.
Regret is the main reason why they felt this way. In order to eliminate the unwanted procrastination habit and improve your happiness, it is a good idea to practice temptation management.
For instance, in case losing weight is the activity that leads to procrastination, you should visit the local grocery store with a list of things that you should get. In case you are checking your social media profile instead of writing an article, just close the tab where your social media profile is opened.
Source: Power Of Positivity
