Unlock Your Potential for True Happiness

Energy is everywhere and in everything living or otherwise. Energy vibrates with its movement clearly seen under electron microscopes.

Human beings constantly exert energy out into the world and to those around us. Kind and gentle energy  felt differently than angry, condescending energy. And we all know it – we can feel it. So if we want to live peaceful, joyful lives we should surround ourselves with peaceful, joyful people.

And the reverse is true. If we surround ourselves with people expressing chaotic energy who are loud and aggressive, we’ll certainly absorb more of that energy and begin to act in a like manner.

It’s not just people whose energy we need to be aware of, it’s also energies we let into us from various sources. Prime examples are movies we watch, games we play, activities we participate in, and our choices of what we watch on television, online, and in videos.

The energy we receive from a gentle friendly dog, is different than the energy we feel around an aggressive barking one. And the energy of an affectionate cat has little in common with the energy of a tiger in the wild killing its prey.

Habit #

Habits can be helpful or hurtful to our lives. What’s interesting is the process of creating and keeping a habit is the same whether it benefits us or makes life more difficult. Let’s say we build the habit of helping people, and the habit becomes gratifying by serving others. What if we built the habit of being on time meeting people socially or in business. This would create respect and trust by honoring people’s time. And what if we created the habits of eating healthy foods and exercising three days per week. These would help us maintain good health throughout our lives.

On the other hand, what if we created the habit of drinking alcohol on a daily basis to the point of intoxication. This habit no doubt would cause problems in our lives. Or what if we had the habit of lying to others to cover our poor work performance or other weaknesses. Sooner or later we’d be found out getting the reputation of not being trustworthy. And what if we created the habit of leaving clothes lying around the house where our spouse had to constantly remind us to throw them in the hamper or put them away. This would not only create an inconvenience for our spouse, but may lead to disagreements straining our relationship.

If we have some undesirable habits, and most of us do, we can start choosing better ones once we’re mature enough to do so. Unfortunately, there’s no age set in stone for when we become mature enough to change unwanted habits. I’ve met 17-year-olds with the maturity of a 25 year-old, and met 50-year-olds with the maturity of a 17-year-old.

A major key in changing habits is identifying how we feel when we engage in those activities. If we become attached to the euphoric feeling that often accompanies a bad habit instead of observing it, we’ll probably continue the habitual behavior even when it causes us problems.

A few months into my first golf job, I was in the habit of selling golf clubs that had to be special ordered. My boss told me from across his desk, I needed to start selling the inventory we had in the store or my job was in jeopardy. Since I didn’t want to lose my job, I worked very hard to sell our inventory and stop special ordering clubs unless it was absolutely necessary. It took a lot of effort to change my habit, but the motivation of keeping my job was a big help.

Remember, we have habits that serve us and habits that don’t. Once we understand how habits are formed, we can focus on ridding ourselves of ones we want to eliminate.

Humility #

When I first thought about the word humility and how it applied to creating a fulfilling life, I had to step back and really think through exactly what was humility. As I started to write about it, I realized some of the other chapters I wrote about had to be learned before we can begin to be humble in how we live and respond to others. The two titles that came up were ‘Awe’ and ‘Gratitude’.

Awe for the fact that we’re here as human beings on a tiny planet trillions of times smaller than our universe alone, let alone all the many universes that are yet to be discovered.

And gratitude for things many of us take for granted, such as being able to walk, talk, see, and hear.

Humility, the freedom from pride and arrogance, is the opposite of a prideful ego, a sense of self-importance and self-centeredness. A humble person will give credit to others for things accomplished through him. The attitude is that  everyone contributes, instead of, “I did it.”, something the ego loves to claim.

A good example of comparing the egotistical person to one who is humble should be clear with this story.

Two men, one arrogant and one reserved, find ladders leaning against the roof of a three story house. The boastful one claims he can reach the top before the quiet man. They start at the same time, and in a short while the boastful man who’s nearing the top looks down and mocks the quiet man who’s only on the second rung of the ladder. It begins pouring rain and both men slip off the ladder falling to the ground. The arrogant man who was proud of his quick ascent suffers a broken leg, and the quiet man remains unharmed. Throughout history humble people have been characterized as living simple lives without fanfare. The higher we travel in ego, the farther we fall. The closer we stay to the ground, the safer we are.