A couple of weeks ago when I had my breakfast, this quote was of the day with my tea: "If we give happiness to others, we will end up happy." It got me wondering if this has to do with the resistance I so often feel I encounter from others, or simply receiving no answers and hindering any solving. Is it because I am not making them happy?
No, as a professional lifecoach it has rather led me both for my own, and towards others.
Is it then the other way around? If I am already happy, or come off as, does this intimidate others in their interaction with me? If I am a happy customer coming into a store at peace, just wanting to buy something that I already know I like, the store clerks can not make me happy, they think? What they often do instead, is either the "oversell" of other things, or seem snobby and unwilling to sell. How do you think that makes me feel? Angry and creating unnecessary stress, that lessens my happiness and certainly removes my peace. What do they win on this behavior?
(I've noticed this both in Sweden and in Portugal, regardless of any Covid-restrictions, even, and especially, when I have enough money to feel relaxed about my purchase.)
Are we competing about happiness? Obviously the pursuit of offering ways to become happy, has been the focus for the self-help business for several decades, but something is amiss. If you don't want others to be happy and get upset when someone is, how can you then sell happiness?
I decided in my early years as a Lifecoach in the beginning of the 2000's, after working in advertising as a copywriter, to choose to be happy, to have it rather as my starting point and approach to life, than assuming or depending on others for my happiness.
What makes you happy? Are you supporting others' pursuit of happiness?
Happy 4th of July the United States!