Hello everyone. Katie Wheeler here coming to you live with week five of my five keys to happiness video series. If you missed any of the previous four weeks when I talked about perspective, choosing your thoughts, the magic of less, and the art of selfishness, you can catch up on my Facebook page under videos. Thank you for watching today’s key, forget happiness, choose peace.
The last four weeks I’ve talked about keys to happiness. This kind of happiness, however, is more surface happiness, not lasting peace. What it all boils down to, what this has all been leading up to is this. Stop trying to be happy, and instead choose peace!
Peace transcends happiness. When you are at peace with yourself, with your life, you have surpassed happiness, so you no longer need to create it. This starts with being at peace with yourself. Who you are, and who you were meant to be, and then to do what you are meant to do.
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”― Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!
Accept Yourself
Exactly as you are, who you are, all of your weaknesses and all of your strengths. In our society, we make a lot of comparisons to each other. We compare ourselves to others who are different than us. Here’s the problem with that. Don’t think there’s something wrong with you because you’re different.
We’re all created differently, and that’s a beautiful thing. Don’t get down feeling like there’s something wrong with you. Accept who you are in all of your perfectly imperfectness. Be at peace with yourself. Stop comparing yourself to others and trying to be ‘normal.’ There is no such thing as normal only a lot of different individuals with some similar characteristics.
“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.” -Morticia Addams
Once you’ve accepted yourself, you are on the direct path to being the person you were created to be. Everything you’ve done, everywhere you’ve been has all helped shape you as you are today. Be at peace with your life as it is right now because this is your ever after. It’s right now. Accept it as the gift that is is, and be at peace with your life.
Peace is Bigger Than Us
A huge part of being at peace with ourselves and our lives is doing what we are meant to do, fulfilling our purpose. It’s not about seeking happiness or success, but about using our unique talents to do something meaningful.
Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor and author, wrote about this theme in his best-selling book, “Man’s Search for Meaning.” He believed that the reason he survived while others didn’t was his need to fulfill his purpose. He cautioned not to confuse purpose with success or happiness.
“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
And so follows happiness. When you are being who you are meant to be, you are at peace.
How Do We Know?
Most of us grew up being asked the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” What I discovered, is that my answer was always there, but I was keeping myself too distracted to notice. I’ve always journaled and wrote for myself, but when I first started writing for other people, it’s like a lightbulb went off. Suddenly the answer fell before me, though it had truly been there all along.
Author Jeff Goins talks about finding your calling and pursuing your purpose in his best-selling book, “The Art of Work.” In this book, he gives guidance on how to discover your calling.
“A calling isn’t something new and shiny. Often it’s something old and predictable, a familiar face that’s easily taken for granted, an old habit or hobby that comes back into our lives.”
― Jeff Goins, The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do
So my challenge for you in conclusion of this five week video series, is to find what gives you peace, and do it. Either part time as a hobby, or full time as a career. Let your conscience be your guide, and follow your heart. Your heart will lead you to your purpose, and there you will have peace.
I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a thought about these keys to happiness in the comments section of this post.
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Copyright © 2017 Katherine J. Wheeler. All rights reserved.
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