What’s the one thing that you believe will make your life immensely better?
Is it losing weight, increasing your earnings, having more time to spend with your loved ones, or traveling the world?
What if that thing never happened? What if it did happen, but turned out to be overrated or just not for you?
And what’s the one thing that’s going really well for you right now? What if you woke up tomorrow and it just wasn’t available to you anymore? Do these thoughts fill you with trepidation?
If they do, then chances are that you only have one major dream or goal that you’ve elevated to be the main focus and pinnacle of your life.
Maybe you feel like achieving this one thing will open doors for you, and it probably would, but what if I told you that you already have the power to open doors for yourself, right here, right now?
Picture this:
It’s a slow season with your business, but you get to help your child on a school project they’re really excited about.Your home gets flooded, but a friend invites you to crash at their place for the meantime, which gives you an opportunity to spend time together and catch up.A meeting gets canceled at the last minute, but you finally get to attend that art class you’ve been meaning to check out. You lose your job, but someone in your volunteer network points you to an opening in an industry where you’ve previously expressed interest and have been studying for a while.
The above scenarios all have an element of balance and compensation, which makes the tough breaks in life a little more bearable, and some even turn it into an opportunity for growth!
The nature of life is that we will always encounter an unexpected curveball along the way, sooner or later.
So how do you curate your life in a way that minimizes these curveballs or enables you to sail right past them?
The answer is to diversify your happiness portfolio to include various things that bring you joy, and whose performance is largely unrelated to each other. Think of it as having your contingency plan in motion way before your main plan ever fails so that when those hard days come around, as they tend to do, you’ll have a safety net waiting to cushion your fall.
Living your life this way will ensure that:
One setback doesn’t entirely demotivate you or bring your life to a standstill. You avoid burnout and boredom by shifting your focus to a different, equally fulfilling activity when one becomes too tedious or monotonous. This also helps you to look at the problem with fresh eyes when you eventually return to it.Synergy happens. When you stimulate your mind constantly by engaging in unrelated activities, the benefits of one will start to rub off on the other to create greater results than you would have achieved with one option. As an example, an active lifestyle will give you more physical energy which will in turn improve your productivity in your day to day responsibilities.
Are you ready to start creating and diversifying your happiness portfolio? Here are some important tips for you:
Make time to evaluate your life to see which areas are currently lacking.Create a list loosely guided by the areas of personal identity, relationships and community. Come up with goals that fall within the above areas, and a way to track your progress and keep yourself accountable.Finally, start depositing a little bit of time and effort into each area, until it all becomes second nature to you.
To sum it all up, here’s a popular quote from the internet that you can use as a mantra or daily reminder as you move forward:
“Find three hobbies you love: one to make you money, one to keep you in shape, and one to be creative.”
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