Happiness and Success - The Global Forgiveness Initiative

Happiness is a Habit

If the current circumstances of your life are causing you to feel unhappy, there are ways you can rise above those circumstances and feel better. Sometimes we can rise above circumstances even when they are very tough; other times we need to find ways to change our circumstances in order to feel happier. Happiness is partly a result of circumstances and partly a result of habit. We can get into the habit of seeing things in a positive light (we see mostly the potential good in a situation); or in a negative light (we see mostly the potential bad in a situation). Sometimes we need to be able to see the potential bad in a situation, to see what could go wrong, so that we can avoid it.

Happiness as a Habit

However, if we are just thinking about what could go wrong out of habit (such as when there is nothing we can do about it) then we are allowing unhappiness to become a habit and need to break out of that. We then need to cultivate a habit of making sure we can see the potential good in a situation, and do what we can to make that more likely to happen. This will not only make us happier, but it will also make it more likely that good things will happen in our life.

The ability to be successful in life, which in turn helps us to be happy, depends on our ability to see potential opportunities and to make the most of them. Sometimes we need to let go of unhappy experiences from our past in order to have the courage to try new things, and to step into the unknown aspects of a new opportunity.

Our ability to be happy partly depends on our ability let go of the past.

Therefore, our ability to be happy and successful, partly depends on our ability let go of the past, especially unhappy parts of the past, and to move on in life. One thing that can really help with moving on from the past is a psychological process which enables you to forgive the past and let go of painful experiences. You can still have the wisdom and learning from those experiences without having to hold on to old pain.

People block themselves from having the happiness they want, because they don’t believe they really deserve it

Many people block themselves from having the happiness and success they want, because unconsciously they don’t believe they really deserve it. If, for example, someone made a big mistake in the past with money – maybe they just squandered a lot of money – this can cause them to feel that they don’t deserve to have much money. They will then tend to go for jobs with less pay, or won’t even consider opportunities to earn more. Consciously they may be working hard for their success, but unconsciously they might be blocking themselves.

Get this psychological key to happiness: download The Four Steps to Forgiveness.

Happiness and Enthusiasm

If we don’t feel we deserve something we will tend to keep it away from us. If we feel that we are “not good enough” for something, we will tend to steer away from it, even if we get very close to it. We can be sabotaging ourselves without realising it. We might get close to something we want then suddenly we are not enthusiastic about it anymore. If so, it might be that it is an underlying feeling of being undeserving which is causing our enthusiasm to fall away.

If you feel that you might be holding yourself back from something which would make you happy, whether to do with money, relationships, work or whatever, then taking time to learn to forgive yourself – and practising doing so – could be of great value to you.

Happiness Alternatives

You may not always know what you want in life, but you usually know what you are willing to try.

Some say that they would rather be contented and search for contentment rather than happiness, as they believe that it as easier to reach and maintain contentment. If that is true for you then, that is fine of course. Each of finds our own way to the meaning of happiness. For some it is more about the exploring meaning of contentment, or exploring the meaning of joy, or joyfullness. The main thing is to have happiness (or contentment, or joy) as a goal and to explore what that means to you. Often this is by a process of elimination. You may not always know what you want in life, but you usually know what you are willing to try. If so, that is your starting point to discovering what you want and what makes you happy.

Be Happy for Those Who Have More Than You

Be happy for the happiness, and success, of others and they may well help you be more happy and successful.

Another way forgiveness helps your ability to create more prosperity and abundance in your life is when you use it to forgive others. If you resent someone who has more than you – and decide that they only achieved success by being ‘bad’, or ‘greedy’ – then you will not let yourself succeed because you will not want to think of yourself in that way. Some people do succeed by bad and selfish methods; yet also many people succeed by being good and honest and offering a product or service that other people want to pay for. Also, many successful people love to help other people to succeed to and they can’t do that for someone who obviously does not like them, or wants nothing to do with them. Be happy for the happiness, and success, of others and they may well help you be more happy and successful.

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A Psychological Key to Happiness: Forgive

You can learn to forgive others, even if they hurt you very badly. You can let go of jealousy, or envy, toward those who have more than you. You can also forgive yourself and top punishing yourself for your mistakes. Forgiveness helps create happier individuals, happier families, and happier communities. Forgiveness sets you free. It gives you freedom from your past, so that you can create your future now.

Learn for forgive yourself, and to forgive others, quickly and easily using this free ebook, which offers a psychological process to help you forgive and be happy: The Four Steps to Forgiveness. Don’t let resentment, envy or the mistakes of the past block your happiness and success in the present.

The Four Steps to Forgiveness is totally free (so you don’t even need to give an email address). Download it now using one of the links on this page.

Written by William Fergus Martin, Author: Forgiveness is Power.