🟢 The 1 thing you must sacrifice to get what you want
I aspire to keep this thought front-of-mind always
(1 min read)
Realizing what you actually want
What you really want is to feel good.
Anything you think you want to have is just because you assume you’ll feel better when you have it.
Sacrifice your unenjoyable thoughts for enjoyable ones
‘Don’t I have to sacrifice doing things I want to do by doing things I don’t want to do in order to get ahead?’
And we say the only thing you have to sacrifice is your unhappiness.
Sacrifice it! Let it go! Give it up!
‘I’ll give up all of my misery for the joy that is natural to me.’
That is the message.
So you have to sacrifice negative conversations.
You have to sacrifice negative thoughts.
You have to sacrifice those memories that hurt your feelings.
You have to sacrifice stewing over things and brooding over things.
You have to sacrifice all that misery for your joy because you can’t have both; it’s one or the other.
- Abraham-Hicks
☝️ I like the wording there.💡
“Sacrifice.”
“Let it go.”
“Give it up.”
We spend most of our waking hours in a trance.
None of us is mindful all the time.
And when we’re letting our minds run wild, sometimes they pursue unhelpful lines of thinking.
They cling to worrying, catastrophizing, or worse.
Only when we eventually snap out of it do we realize that we just robbed ourselves of our (extended) present moment.
The direct route
Philosopher, neuroscientist, meditation enthusiast Sam Harris reminds us:
Notice how you are feeling in this moment.
I’m going to venture a guess that you’re not feeling as tranquil and as satisfied as you have ever felt in your life.
But you know what’s it’s like to feel that way.
And you don’t need a reason.
It’s one of the great lies we tell ourselves (along with anyone who will listen) — that we need sufficient reasons to be happy.
- Sam Harris
If we can get in the habit of asking ourselves “What could I appreciate right now if I really wanted to? How amazing could I feel?”, those moments would each be wonderful.
And a happy life is just a string of happy moments.
🕙 What we learned in recent posts:
🟢 The cheat code I learned from Steve Jobs and Ray Dalio
🟢 The 2 (contradictory) ingredients to happiness
🟢 We got rid of all of our possessions
Love this! Sam Harris - the master of mindfulness and eloquence 👑