When was the last time you truly felt happy in life? We often search for happiness in common places such as love, personal possessions and so on. However, we all know that money can’t bring you true happiness. So where do we go from there? Some people might search for happiness within their minds. They might try to find something that makes them happy, such as reaching a goal they set themselves when they were young, or making an old dream come true. Others search for happiness in doing good deeds. It could be charity work, being there to support a more ambitious friend, or being able to raise a family and provide them with a stable future.
In other words, searching for happiness depends on the individual. Don’t expect to be happy because of the same things that your friend is happy about. However, if you’re stuck for ideas and you aren’t entirely sure what makes you happy or how you can achieve happiness, then here are a few secrets to help you find your passions and goals in life.
Raising a Family
One of the most common goals for people in the world is to have children, raise a family and provide them with a future. Sometimes it’s because you want to continue your bloodline, other times it’s due to family values and peer pressure, and sometimes you just want to bring new life into the world and treat them with the respect and attention they deserve. However, it can be difficult to understand if you haven’t had children yet and there are some people that just hate the idea due to the responsibility involved.
However, raising children and starting a family can be one of the most rewarding things in life. Despite how much effort it can take and the work involved, raising a family is something that has to be experienced to be believed. It gives you a sense of purpose in life, a feeling that someone is relying on you for their upbringing and looks up to you as a parent, an idol in life that some children in the world grow up without. Not only do you provide love and care for your family, but you also provide for them financially. You save up money so that you can send them to school, buy them nice things, and go on holiday with them to see all the wonderful and amazing things in life.
However, there will come a point when you’re content with your family. Perhaps you’ve reached a point where you have enough children and you don’t want to have more, or maybe just having a single child is enough. Raising children is a big responsibility that requires a lot of money and patience, so it’s irresponsible to raise too many children that you can’t provide for. If you’re truly content with your family, then you may want to consider male contraception options. Some options are temporary, such as using condoms or asking your partner to take pills, but there are more permanent options such as sterilisation. This will prevent you from having any more children, giving you and your partner the freedom of having safe sex without the consequence of bringing another life into the world. This option means you can be content with your family and still have a wonderful sex life.
Looking at Your Past
Your past is perhaps the biggest source of inspiration for your happiness. A common strategy that a lot of people use during a midlife crisis is to actually look back at their past. They look at when they were a young child or when they were a growing teenager in order to look for things that truly made them happy. Perhaps working at your current job has made you forget all about your past dreams and goals, or maybe you had to abandon something you loved in the past because you didn’t have time to indulge in your hobbies.
Looking back at your past is a fantastic way to rediscover yourself. The hustle and bustle of a modern lifestyle can sometimes push us away from our very first dreams and the goals we set ourselves, but taking a few hours each week to reflect, write down all your past hobbies and discover what truly made you happy can give you a new take on life. Even if it’s something simple such as making art your hobby or learning a new language, taking small steps to learn a new skill and indulge in past hobbies is a powerful motivator.
Whether it’s a change of career, picking up an old hobby or finding what really makes you happy in life, your past is a wonderful place to look for inspiration and it’s one of the big secrets to help you become content with your life.
Realising Your Desires
Once you’ve rediscovered yourself, it’s time to make a decision: do you continue sacrificing doing what you love for the sake of your friends and family, or do you follow your dreams to make yourself happy? It can be a difficult decision to make and not everyone has the luxury of doing both.
However, it goes without saying that you need to make a decision that you are 100% behind so that you won’t regret it in the future. A common time for regret is towards the end of a university course, when the doubt settles in and you realise that the major you picked isn’t what you want to do in life. Or perhaps the doubt sinks in during your first month at a new job. You’ve worked so hard and paid a lot of money in order to study at a prestigious university, only to realise that it isn’t something you enjoy doing. These two situations can break your spirit and cause you to sink into depression because you’ve used up years of your life chasing something that wasn’t a dream.
It’s important not to see it as a waste of time especially if you gave it your best and it was truly something you wanted to do in the past. Had you not taken the university course and studied hard, then you might be in the same position, regretting your decisions and wishing you would’ve studied something to chase your dreams from a decade ago.
But no matter what you pick, ensure that you follow your gut feeling and follow your desires. Even if you feel bad after chasing them for a month and realising it’s not what you want, you should live life without regret and without feeling like you missed a golden opportunity.
Accepting Who You Are
Being yourself is one of the most important pieces of advice that anyone can give out. It’s easy to follow the herd and act how other people do, especially when we’re exposed to so many different communities and societies thanks to the internet. However, do keep in mind that no matter what kind of environment you’re raised in, you can’t forget about your tradition and culture.
Of course, there are times when your traditions and cultural activities aren’t widely accepted or even condoned in other parts of the world, or there are times when it might be awkward to fully realise them. It’s up to you to decide if you want to abandon tight traditions in favour of blending in with your local community, but it’s important that no matter what decision you make, you’re following your gut and being who you want to be instead of conforming to the standards or stereotypes of other people.
Even if your parents are pushing you to study a certain subject at university or follow a career path because it’s traditional in your family, or if your friends are using peer pressure to make you do something, you make a stand for yourself and help them learn to accept you for who you are. It could be your sexuality, it could be your decision to marry, or it could be your decision not to have children. Whatever it is, it’s important that you accept yourself and be who you are instead of trying to fit in with other people.
Focus on your own personal strengths, your desires, and whatever will make you content with life. Don’t focus too much on things that don’t make you happy, and put yourself first.
Summary
Being content with life is difficult. It requires a mix of selfishness with a dose of sacrifice depending on the people around you. There are times when you’ll be working ridiculous hours just to make enough money to provide for your family, and there are times when you’ll leave your friends behind in search of new career opportunities somewhere in another town or even country.
But being content is a lot about searching for your own happiness. Use your past, your desires, and your own personal tastes to help you find something in life that’s worth achieving. Be it starting a family, being a successful entrepreneur or just living a quiet and comfortable life with your friends, reach for happiness and live a life free of regrets.
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