Photo: Allef Vinicius via Unsplash
You can be happy.
By Unwritten — Written on Jan 24, 2018
Over the past year I’ve noticed a lot of self-growth and the more I reflect the prouder I become of myself. My resolution for the year was to make this the year of me and it was a large success, so much so, that I’m making it my resolution for next year as well.
The lessons I’ve learned will forever be ingrained in my mind and I am thrilled that I took the biggest upsets and have made them into positives. We can all admit, it’s extremely difficult to do. These are my biggest lessons on happiness from the past year:
1. New Opportunities Will Come
For the first time in my life, I lost my job unwillingly. It absolutely sucked being laid off. My life was so secure and I always had a plan. But for the first time, I genuinely had no plan but to try and get something new. I took my time to be upset but I didn’t dwell. Instead, I looked at it as a blessing and continued to look for something new. And after almost six months of trying, I got a new job I’m in love with that’s in a field I never expected to be in. It can be a frustrating wait, but it will be so worth it.
2. Let People Leave
Yet again I experienced another heartbreak by someone I didn’t expect to. The circumstance was horrible but at the same time, I finally realized that there is no sense in fighting to keep someone in your life when they clearly don’t want to be in it. Show them the door and show them that you don’t need them in order to be happy because you’re a strong and independent woman.
3. Don’t Blame Yourself
Regardless of how bad you feel about yourself do not, under any circumstances, blame yourself over every detail. Sometimes we do have to take ownership of our actions. But a majority of the time we overthink ourselves to a pit of depression and guilt. It’s hard but think of how other situations affected yours and re-evaluate it. It will help you, trust me.
4. Learn to Let Go
Until the past year, I always used to be someone who overthought absolutely everything. I held onto my emotions for a lot longer than I should have and I couldn’t seem to drop a thing. The moment you say “screw it” and move on with your life you really notice a difference in your happiness levels. Once you figure out what to do to get yourself to move on, continue to do it and never stop.
Like I mentioned earlier in this article, I made this my year. And by focusing on just myself (for the most part anyway) I learned to make myself a priority. By making these slight changes you learn to appreciate yourself a lot more and can strive to achieve the right changes you want to make in life.
You dictate your happiness and you dictate your future. Start making the changes now and start securing your life in the only way you know how to now. I did and it was the best decision I ever made and the best lessons I learned.
This article was originally published at unwritten. Reprinted with permission from the author.