If you think that the secret to getting what you want out of life is going to come from outside of yourself, you’re in for a nasty surprise. No matter how much striving you do, your achievements will only be fleeting sensations of euphoria and excitement. Eventually, you’ll return to your baseline state of being – your preset happiness level.
You probably know this to be true from your personal life already. Think back to a time when you felt great because something positive happened in your life. Perhaps you won some money, generated passive income, found a new relationship or achieved academic success. Whatever it was, it felt great at the time. For a few days or weeks, you were happy with how your life was going. It felt like you were on top of the world.
But now you’re out of that situation, it’s different. You have money in the bank, but it doesn’t mean much to you. There is a special person in your life, but the early euphoria of that situation is gone. You have great examination results on your CV, but it doesn’t mean a great deal to you any longer.
Even if you feel like you haven’t achieved much in your life, you can come to the conclusion that external rewards don’t satisfy from famous examples. Think of all the celebrities who have everything they could ever want in life but are privately miserable. Often, you can see the effects of their misery written all over their faces, sometimes in the form of plastic surgery.
The trick here is to realize that the key to a successful life has nothing to do with the material or social attainments that you have in the external world. Instead, it all comes down to your inner being – how you feel inside. That alone determines the quality of your life.
Everything Is Internal
It might sound like a strange thing to say, but everything that matters to you is entirely internal. That’s because you can never experience reality as it is. You can only observe it through the filter of your mind.
It’s an odd thing to say, but when you think about it, you discover that it is true. Can you experience or perceive anything without it first going through your mind? Do you know what it feels like to be a tree, a blade of grass or the sun? Of course not.
When you discover that everything you experience is something your mind generates, it opens up a host of possibilities. You become less concerned about conditions in the external world because you recognize that you have a degree of control over your inner state. Ultimately, you decide how you feel.
Now, of course, getting to that point isn’t easy. You might not be able to do it straight away. But if you can just touch it, or sense it, you soon see the possibility. Imagine being able to walk into chaotic or unpleasant situations without them disturbing your peace of mind. It seems far-fetched, but it can be done. In fact, there are many people who have already done it, proving that it’s possible.
So how, specifically, can you get what you want out of life? Let’s take a look.
Change Your Mindset
Experts, such as Sunshine Behavioral Health, see a lot of people who have the wrong mindset. They believe that life should work out a certain way for them. If things don’t go according to their plan, it’s a disaster and affects everything they do.
The key here is to change your mindset. You want to think carefully about your belief systems and what you regard as truly important. If you see life as something that should work out a certain way, you’ll be forever disappointed. Instead, see it as an adventure or a possibility. You’re never quite certain how things will turn out.
Get Over Failure
Even if things have gone wrong in the past, that doesn’t mean that they will in the future. Failure strikes everyone. In fact, failure is a necessary ingredient in life. Even if you’ve struggled with yourself before, don’t give up. Change your approach to dealing with yourself. Find a way to overcome some of the inner fears and clingings that you have.
Allow Yourself To Feel Good
Lastly, sometimes people need to give themselves permission to feel good. They worry that if they have positive sentiment in their lives, they will become weak or soft, or they’re not taking their goals seriously enough.
But ask yourself this: why do you have goals in the first place? Aren’t they to help you feel better?
