Are you truly happy?

Contentment – noun. A state of happiness and satisfaction

Settling – verb. To accept or agree to something that one considers to be less than satisfactory.

Are you content with your life, or are you settling? 

That is a loaded question.  Some of us don’t know which one we are doing.  We live day to day accepting that what we have is either the best we can do or the best we deserve.  Are any of us truly happy?  The answer to that is yes.  Happiness is not a fantasy, it is achievable.  For those who suffer from depression our hearts are with you.  Please seek professional help for it is not something that you can deal with alone.

What we want to talk about in this blog are those of us who stay at our jobs or stay in a relationship because it is what we have become accustomed to.  We settle in and we are not happy.

We all have those friends.  You know the ones.  The ones who always complain about the same things over and over.  They hate their jobs.  They want to lose weight.  They want to drink less, spend less or eat less. They want to be healthier or wealthier.  They are unhappy with the relationship they are in. They are unhappy that they are not in a relationship.  Yet they never seem to do anything to change themselves, their situations or their surroundings.

Why are they stuck?  We think it all comes down to one thing.  Fear.

They are afraid.  Afraid to step out of their comfort zone.  Afraid of change.  Afraid of working hard for what they really want.  Even when what they have settled into is making them miserable.  Fear is a strange bedfellow.  It’s a little voice inside of our heads telling us things like, ‘Don’t do that, it will be too hard’.  ‘If you try you know you will only fail so why try?’,  ‘You don’t deserve it’.

Fear stops people in their tracks.  Fear is a state of mind.  It is not a physical impediment.  Fear can be overcome.  All you need is courage.

Courage – noun.  The ability to do something that frightens oneself

Do we need to get rid of fear?  Absolutely not.  Without fear there would be no courage.  They are Yin and Yang.  They need to be balanced.  We need to recognize our fears and bring them out into the light. Then we need to build up our courage to overcome our fears.

Overcoming fear is no easy feat.  It is something that we often can’t do alone.  Talk to friends and family.  Listen to what they have to say.  Accept help from them.  Write things down if it helps you to organize your thoughts. Think about all the positive outcomes that can come with change.  Tackle one thing at a time.  If you overwhelm yourself you are more likely to quit.

You are fabulous.  You deserve the best.  Go out there and find it.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” Franklin D. Roosevelt

Wendy & Julie