Let Yourself Be Happy
Aristotle believed in two kinds of happiness. Hedonic happiness is derived from pleasure. The second kind of happiness is eudaimonia. This comes from pursuing virtue and meaning.
Let yourself be happy:
Are challenges overflowing? Let Yourself be happy. Life without challenge is meaningless.
Are your good intentions misunderstood? Let yourself be happy. No one on earth fully understands you. You don’t fully understand yourself.
When struggle ends in defeat, let yourself be happy. You pressed forward. So what if you failed. Life is in the effort.
Are you disappointed in yourself? You aren’t alone. It’s normal to worry that you could have done better. Let yourself be happy.
Do your knees buckle under the weight of responsibility? Let yourself be happy. Celebrate the next step.
When uncertainty infiltrates decisions, let yourself be happy. You are free to explore options and make choices.
Are you dizzy from rejection? Let yourself be happy. You can’t control others.
When you wonder if you’re enough, let yourself be happy. You became enough in the past. And when you fail you learn.
Do you care more deeply than others? Let yourself be happy. Feeling alone reminds you to nurture relationships that bring joy to others and yourself.
Let yourself be happy. The world will go on without you.
How to let yourself be happy:
- Practice gratitude even when you don’t feel grateful.
- Take a break even when there’s more to do. There’s always more to do.
- Accept your current situation, even though you want something different.
- Work to improve your ability to contribute.
- Spend time reflecting on your day. Take note of harmful patterns and attitudes.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor Frankl
How can you let yourself be happy today?
Still curious:
7 Ways to Be a Happy Leader Today
What Is Happiness and How Can You Become Happier?
This is another very timely post. I’m six months into a new role with greater responsibilities and opportunities. With that comes, even more time pressure and very long hours. I joke that I didn’t go into family farming because I didn’t want to work all day, seven days a week. Yet now I’m actually working farmers hours. 🙂 Yet there is a lot to be grateful for. I’m re-learning several of the lessons listed above, in particular #2, #3, and #5.
Congratulations on your new role. I wish you well. Good work produces the opportunity to do more good work! I know what farmer’s hours are. It’s not work. It’s life!
My farmer friend says, “Steady on.”
Just be happy! A state of mind we can develop to enhance our lives. Start the day doing something we enjoy! That first cup of Coffee, Tea, juice, etc.
Find your niche that let’s joy in your life.
The music that lights up your life can help us out of our strive!
Thanks for the reminder to taste the coffee. It is a point of enjoyment in the morning.
Another excellent post, thank you. I love the phrasing of “letting myself” be happy — a good reminder that although cultivating character and environment is central for influencing our long term instinctive perspective, we remain able to choose our momentary perspective in each situation. Great examples of times when we may need to lean into letting ourselves be happy (project / team / situation not fully what we want or not “perfect”)— and learning to reframe the experience is helpful.
In an imperfect world waiting for perfection is bound to be disappointing. 🙂 So, let yourself be happy.
Perfect. Wonderful post, again.
We are coming up on five year family vacation…take our adult children to Florida for week in a rented house. I am going to print this on pretty paper and leave on each of their nightstands. Perfect reset mantra. Thank you.
What a wonderful opportunity. I wish you a wonderful time. And, thanks for allowing me to contribute.
There is a phrase I learned several years ago has been life-changing. “Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” The answer is almost always happy.
My problem is it takes humility to choose happy over being right (since being right makes me happy).
Abraham Lincoln said, “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” It is as true now as when he said it.
I was seldom so busy when I was “working” as I have almost always been since I “retired” six years ago. My family, church and community keep me fully occupied these days.
But I have never been happier!
I have been working to keep the Frankl quote always in mind for the past thirty years or so, and its wisdom has served me well.
I am looking forward to reading “The Vagrant.”
Another insightful and valuable post!
It’s good to be happy. I’ve experienced sadness and happiness is more enjoyable.
Thanks for mentioning The Vagrant. I’m delighted in how it turned out. There were at least 8 revisions.
This is awesome. I have some dislike of the word ‘happiness’, preferring ‘contentment’ or ‘fulfillment’, and this post captures some of that distinction.
I’m with you, Glen. It includes frivolous things. It just seemed to work so I went with it. Flourish is another good one.
As I think about it, the light-heartedness of it fits the spirit of the post. I suppose you could also say, “Lighten up.” 🙂
Glad you jumped in today.
I agree ‘happiness’ means different things to different people in different situations. And in the case of the loss of someone close, ‘contentment’ or ‘fulfillment’ does no better job than ‘happiness’ in capturing the desired end state… But as always, the advice in your post transcends… let yourself be happy, let yourself chuckle, let yourself smile, let yourself enjoy the irony…
Looking forward to reading the copy of The Vagrant I bought for myself, and for gifting the copies I bought to give to friends!