Many of my life coaching clients find this difficult to grasp at first: Happiness is not dependent on external circumstances. There are people in extreme poverty or with serious health conditions that still experience happiness. On the other hand, we all have heard that many famous and rich people, who seem to “have it all”, suffer from depression.
No matter what our circumstances are, we always have the choice to decide how we want to react – whether we want to focus on what we have, or on that what we do not have. If we make our happiness dependent on external circumstances, we postpone it to the future and make it conditional upon things that are only partly, or not at all, in our control. This can be hard to see (and to apply) but a life coach like me can take you through the process step-by-step.
How about stopping what you are doing right now, thanking the universe for the fact that your are alive and deciding to be happy – right now. Would you like to give it a try? How does it feel?
Interested in de-mystifying the concept of happiness? Click here to access my FREE mini happiness course in which I explain what scientific studies tell us about happiness, why changing external consequences has little impact on our lasting happiness and what is much more suitable for promoting happiness and wellbeing.