Back in May of 2011, the website authors at The Purpose Fairy created a list of 15 Things You Should Give Up to be Happy. This article has had 1.2 million likes on Facebook and it was the most shared article in 2011 according to Facebook. It's no surprise to me that this went viral.
Here are the 15 things we should give up so that we can be happy:
1. Give up your need to always be right
2. Give up your need for control
3. Give up on blame
4. Give up your self-defeating self-talk
5. Give up your limiting beliefs
6. Give up complaining
7. Give up the luxury of criticism
8. Give up your need to impress others
9. Give up your resistance to change
10. Give up labels
11. Give up on your fears
12. Give up your excuses
13. Give up the past
14. Give up attachment
15. Give up living your life to other people’s expectations
I thought the list was a well crafted and spelled out exactly what we needed to give up that is making us feel so miserably unhappy. This list is misleading in it's simplicity. It's like saying stop eating so much and exercise more. There is so much more to the psychology of why we struggle with doing those things that will make us happier, healthier and at our BEST. If it were just a matter of "do this" and "stop that" we'd all be one big happy! But unfortunately, the quest for happiness is mired in our thoughts, experiences and our beliefs about ourselves and others. I don't believe for a minute that all of us who are unhappy are choosing to be unhappy consciously.
Over the next couple of weeks, I will spend some time talking about each of the "things" listed and perhaps offer some thought provoking commentary that might help someone along their journey to happiness. After all we all deserve to be happy!
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