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Showing posts with the label Enemies of happiness

Enemies of Happiness – Greed

Yet another enemy of happiness may have entered in the mind of some of us. This is greed. It keeps on growing unabated when not controlled. The end result invariably is a disaster. It can be greed for money, it can be greed for power or fame, respect, sex or even attention. Greed for food is also not uncommon. Greed has a tendency to grow faster when you achieve more. Unfortunately greedy people lose the perspective. If the human wanted more for happiness, it may be considered normal. But greed invariably makes you unhappy. In this case the desire is never controlled. In fact one can be rich without being greedy. Making more money should not be the objective. Enjoying what you have and of course aspiring for more can be a legitimate goal of successful people in a competitive world. But greed does not allow you to enjoy what you have. It only reinforces your anguish on what you don’t have.   The great English Victorian explorer – Sir Richard Frances...

Enemies of Happiness- Hesitation

The main cause of hesitation is uncertainty. Often we are not sure of the result of our decision or action. Fear of making a mistake is the root cause of hesitation. How can we overcome this fear of making a mistake? Ask yourself “have I met anybody how does not make mistakes”. Is there any leader in the world ever who never made any mistakes? Everybody does. If that be so then why one should be afraid of making a mistake. It gives you enough reason not to hesitate. But, reason is not the only thing when we talk of hesitation and or fear of making a mistake. The associated problems like how others will feel or perceive about decision/action bothers our mind. What happens if you don’t take a decision? What happens if you don’t take action where it is required? Consequences of inaction or indecision are far more severe than the fear of making a mistake.   The best thing is to think and act. When it something serious you can note down crystallize your though...

Enemies of Happiness – Attachment.

You like something, you are attached. You believe a creed you become attached etc. Likewise you become attached to your possessions, your house, your car, and things like that. However attachment does not lead you anywhere. It’s necessary that you identify the reason for attachment and then decide to pull yourself out.   Change is the law of nature. Everything that belongs to this earth must change. And you should accept these changes as a part of life. Therefore, wherever you get attached to, you are likely to be unhappy due to possible loss of the attached thing, person or place. Stop fearing the loss. Some risk is always there in life; no one can avoid all risks. I would go one step further to say that taking some risk is necessary for your growth.   In the circumstance it is best not to be attached to anything. You should be prepared for change as they say change is the only thing which is constant. Except that, everything else changes. And just ...

Enemies of Happiness- Procrastination

Procrastination is the bane of life. It is a major problem. The procrastinator losses perspective. He/she tends to do unimportant tasks because either they are easy or to his/her liking. In any case this is a bad habit which must be eradicated all together.   Normally one tends to postpone difficult and time consuming projects. In case the project is likely to take a long time you need to decide that you must make a beginning. Long ago I had listen to a training tape where the trainer said that in such cases use ‘Salami Technique.’ Further he described when you look at the Salami it is very unappetizing to look at. But if you cut it into smaller slices it becomes quite palatable. Similarly if we break a daunting task in small pieces we can handle the small parts of the problem and solve it using this piecemeal approach. The best suggestion is that you focus on starting the project rather than thinking about how it is going to be finished.   Another ...

Enemies of Happiness 6

Friends, I hope you must have reflected on the two Enemies of Happiness that originate and grow in the mind. After Anger and Fear, I proposed to talk about Jealousy in this post. Jealousy: Jealousy is quite common in our competitive world. It’s important to recognize the reason for the jealousy. You must also identify how much time and attention it takes you to contemplate on this daemon. Jealousy can be really debilitating. It doesn’t allow you to reach your goals. Once you admit to yourself that this ugly dragon keeps creating problems in your mind, you must seek corrective measures.   Some suggestions: 1. Reflect on your achievements. Count your blessings. And then try to achieve more. When you are busy in making and implementing your plan to achieve your goals you will not have time to waste with this malady.          2. You must accept yourself as you are. Assess your strengths. Try to leverage these streng...

Enemies of Happiness 5

In my last post I had talked about Anger. The next most dangerous enemy of happiness is Fear. It is an emotion induced by a threat among the living beings. Among humans fear may occur in response to perceived risk to health or life, security, power, status or risk of losing any valuable. We keep on harboring fear by thinking that it is something natural to human being. Yes it is. But it can be conquered. How?   1. First of all accept it. Accept that you are afraid of certain things until we maintain our brave face we cannot device remedial measures. It’s preferable to write it down what you are afraid of and if possible defines the reasons there off.   2. Decide to face your fear. Ask yourself whether fear helps you to come out victorious in a particular situation or fear has any kind of advantage. Answer is always ‘No’. Some situations you can’t even escape.   3. Don’t allow anyone to frighten you for anything. We must also understand t...

Enemies of Happiness 3

  In my last posting I had talked about the enemies of happiness within i.e. oneself. But there are many enemies waiting to spoil your happiness outside. These could be found at your workplace or even in the social group that you belong to. They are also there in your neighborhood. We should also not undermine the enemies present in the extended families or among so called friends.   In this post I like to talk about the enemies at the workplace. Most of our conscious time, we spend at the workplace. If we are happy at work we are likely to carry the same good feelings when we reach home. However if we find that there are happiness spoilers at workplace, it’s necessary to identify them. It is also necessary to deal with them for whatever it takes. I wouldn’t say that any given time you can totally be free from such enemies. But if you identify and take remedial measures, you can definitely mitigate their bad influence.   At workplace some ...

Enemies of Happiness 2

Yesterday I had talked about 8 enemies of happiness which resides in human’s body or soul. I had detailed 4 out of these that is anger, fear, jealousy and indecision. If you have contemplated as suggested, am confident that you would have found sufficient relevance of this discussion. Today I shall talk about attachment, hesitation, procrastination and greed. These are also happiness spoilers. Greed if goes unrefined, can cause disaster. Attachment: Bhagwad Gita advises that any human should not be attached to anything. By attachment I mean you should never have such proximity that separation to that particular object may cause distress. Change is the law of Nature. Everything changes. These changes are bound to bring some objects (including people) close to you and some other away from you. In both situations you have to maintain your poise realizing that this is how life is. It was like this. It is so now. And it will remain the same in all times to come. So for our...

Enemies of Happiness

In my last posting I had mention that as a 1 st step we must identify enemies of our Happiness. These are broadly speaking of two types. Enemies of happiness residing within ourselves. Enemies outside. These could be people; this could be a tasks which you don’t like or environment. In today’s posting I like to tell you about enemies of Happiness which are within are our own selves. I have listed eight. There could be more. Based on these 8 you can prepare your own list. Because Happiness is of prime importance to all of us, we must apply our mind deeply to correct the situation. Following is the list of enemies of Happiness residing in our own Body and Soul. Anger                      5. Attachment       Fear                       ...