Limitless Monday: Secret of Happiness From Ancient Philosophy

Limitless Monday – The secret of happiness from ancient philosophy

I am currently listening to a series of philosophy lectures as I cycle to work each day. This Monday I want to share with you one insight I have learned from nearly 30 hours of lectures. In fact, ‘learned’ isn’t the right word here. When we learn something, we assume we didn’t know it or couldn’t do it before.

Like most of philosophy, it’s mainly common sense: we know the answer, we just haven’t given it much thought. Philosophy allows you to think deeper about concepts which you have probably never considered before. Ideas perhaps you thought you had already figured out. And so it is with the philosophical thought I am going to share with you today.

‘Happiness is what you think about’. This comes from one of the ancient philosophers, Socrates. It’s obvious, right? But like most of philosophy and wisdom, it may be obvious, but we still fail to follow the wisdom embedded in the words.

If happiness can be achieved by simply thinking happy thoughts, then why are we not doing precisely that? Why are we all in search of happiness? When we set goals we believe that when we achieve them we will be happier. But then we find a new goal, and push back happiness until we reach that goal. And so the search continues.

The process is broken. The way to achieve happiness is simple. Just think happy thoughts. That means you can be happy right now. It will take some effort like most things worthwhile, and you will need to kick to the curb a lot of bad habits.

Steve Jobs used to talk about having quality thoughts. He would berate himself if he slipped into unproductive thinking. We can try to use Job’s process to improve our own happiness.

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So what are a few ways to achieve happy thoughts?

Focus on what is good about any situation.

Enjoy the journey as well as the goal.

Take time to appreciate and celebrate an achievement and then get going again.

Appreciate nature.

Appreciate your family and make time for them.

Have fun.

Take up a hobby.

Act like a child.

If you have a romantic partner, do something to make them happy. If you don’t go on a few dates, don’t stress about it.

Enjoy what you do, if you don’t do something else.

Be kind to someone. Be kind to lots of people.

Spend time on solutions not problems.

Focus on your strengths not your weaknesses.

And here are a few thoughts to avoid:

Spending too much time thinking about how people have irritated you – don’t dwell on these thoughts for more than a few minutes and then force yourself to move on.

Worrying about stuff that hasn’t happened yet and may not happen.

Spending time thinking about stuff you can’t control, politics, for example.

Worrying about your health – deal with it, get some exercise, see a doctor.

Happiness is already within your grasp. You don’t need to achieve big goals to attain it. To have a big goal is enough. Change the way you walk, your posture, your facial expression that alone will help. Laugh more. Play more. Don’t take life so seriously. Life’s a game. Enjoy playing it.

Happy Monday!

Banner Image: Happy sun. Image Credit – Andrey_and_Olesya