7 Ways to Guarantee an Unhappy Life
We spend a great amount of our time and energy longing for happiness and meaning. There is no perfect formula for everyone and we must all balance our opportunities and experiences with who we are as individuals. Knowing this is often not enough and finding true meaning can still elude even those of us with the best intentions. In this short blog I’d like to reverse engineer this existential dilemma and talk about how to have an unhappy life. Perhaps by identifying what makes us unhappy we can become more aware on what NOT to do. Below is a list of 7 ways to guarantee an unhappy life:
- Blame others for your hardships
- Lie to yourself and to others
- Rely on other people to give your life meaning and value
- Take any and all blessings for granted
- Take the easy route and avoid hard work
- Believe that you have learned all that you need to learn
- Accept the unfairness of the world as your destiny
Wow, that was hard to write. But maybe the message hits home in a unique way that will be better remembered. Now that we’ve identified 7 tried and true ways to guarantee an unhappy life, let’s explore 7 alternative choices that might bring about a more meaningful and happy life:
- Accept responsibility for where you are in life and where you go moving forward
- Be impeccable with your word
- Acquire the skills needed to lead the life you wish to lead
- Practice and express gratitude often
- Work harder than you ever thought possible
- Keep an open mind and learn new things every day
- Create your own destiny by applying yourself and working daily toward a better future
While ladder list may be more familiar to you, my goal here is that the contrast between the two will give you a different perspective as to how these ideas can help you. Instead of simply recognizing the truth of the positive list, a better task might be to ask yourself how often you are guilty of items from the first list. We all are at times and this can be a harder pill to swallow. But if we can manage to face our shortcomings, we can move forward and get back to the task of living a more meaningful and happy life!
Professor Travis Tooke