"For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"
Shakespeare
Question is: why can't we think ourselves into a good mood whenever we want?
We all know it's no easy; people freak out, sweat and think something might go wrong - it's people's nature. We all have negative self-talk. There is no such thing as an eternal optimist.
Why do our brains focus on negative things, how can we learn to control it and make a conscious effort to be happy?
Our species have existed on this planet over two hundred thousand years, during most of that existence; life was mostly short, vulnerable to predators, brutal and highly competitive. Survival was key and being alert instead of complacent is what made people survive.
The instinctive need for what we don't have yet creates in us a persistent state of dissatisfaction. Unhappiness is nature's way of keeping people on their toes.
It begs the question: is that fear still programmed into our heads today?
Yes
As Steve Jobs once put it "Only the paranoid survive"
Our brains still follow this paranoid model every day, and it's a recipe for unhappiness. We scan the world for problems because that led to our survival.
In today's world survival for food and safety does not apply as in the past, however rather than find good results and make them better, our brains still look for a problem and find a problem and that's usually all we see: problems.
So what do we do about it?
As Aristotle said: “Happiness depends upon us"
In many cases, there is one main thing we can control in our life about ourselves and that is attitude.
It's about choosing one's attitude in any given set of circumstances our own way.
Life is 10% what happens and 90% how we react to it.
90% of our happiness isn't based on what's happening but based on how we see things - our intentional thinking and activities. Happiness is about seeing the half glass full rather than empty.
in our next blog, we will discuss the 7 ways to be happy right now.
One of the core values we have as a company is to inspire and empower people in all aspects of their lives. Additionally, if you want to read about our Custom Software Solutions and Consulting Services, please visit www.isucorp.ca