If You Want to Be Truly Happy, Stop Chasing These Things

Everyone wants to be happy, but unfortunately our wishes and desires often make us feel dissatisfied. We always want something, and because we want it so bad, we get sad when we don't have it. Therefore, we forget to enjoy what we already have.

Essentially, happiness is not a difficult thing to achieve. Happiness is not about getting whatever and everything we want. Stop trying to get everything you want, and instead take a look at how great your life is and enjoy it. If you want to be truly happy, stop chasing these things.

Approval

Are you a people pleaser? If yes, this habit has to be stopped. But don't feel too bad because you are not alone, so many people are struggling with this. You need to stop this because the desire to be liked by everyone, and being afraid of their bad judgment and criticism will prevent you from being happy.

By being a people pleaser, constantly wanting their approval, you make your happiness tied with other people. If just one of them doesn't like you, or criticize you, then you will feel bad. The one thing you need to always remember is: you can't please everybody, it is just impossible.

No matter how good you are, how you always say yes to them, there's always at least someone that will disapprove or disagree. So, instead of exhausting yourself by chasing everyone's approval, just be true of yourself. Do things that make you happy, instead of doing things that make other people happy.

Material Possessions

We work every day to get money, and we use that money to buy us basic necessities, and when there's more we treat ourselves by buying things that we like even though we don't really need them. That's totally fine, but it's not fine when you start to dedicate yourself to buy as many expensive things as possible.

You may find that every time you buy something fancy and expensive, you feel happiness. But that happiness is only temporary. One day you will be bored with your fancy things, and want to buy something new. If you keep letting yourself get sucked into this infinite loop of wanting and buying, you will feel empty and unfulfilled.

The first thing to break out of this toxic loop is to realize that the greatest things in life are not material things. Genuine happiness will come from relationships, personal growth, achievements, and experiences. Try to create new meaningful experiences instead of chasing material possessions.

You can do this by learning new skills, reading new books, traveling, eating something you haven't tried before, or taking up a new hobby to do on your weekends. These are the things that will leave a positive, long-lasting impact on you. So the next time you feel yourself wanting something expensive and fancy, try to ask yourself: do I really need this, or do I want this just to feel the void inside me?

Perfection

You might think that being a perfectionist is a good thing, but you need to realize there's a difference between doing the best you can and perfection. There's no such thing as perfection, it's only an illusion, and if you keep letting yourself try to achieve that illusion, you will be left feeling unsatisfied.

Instead of chasing perfection all the time, try to focus more on progress. No matter how small the step you took, celebrate it because you just progressed. You need to realize that it's okay to make mistakes because life is all about learning and growth. When you make mistakes it doesn't mean you failed, it means you grow and learn.

Society's Unrealistic Standards

If you want to be truly happy, stop chasing these things, and one of the biggest is unrealistic standards set by our society. You must know that a lot of people think that you are considered successful if you have an office job, steady salary, a house, a wife or husband, and then children before you turn 35.

Even if you achieve all of that, you still need to please the society by having a fancy birthday party every year, going on vacation and posting it on Instagram, buying your kids expensive toys or clothes, promotion in your office, competition medals and good grades from your children.

By following these unrealistic standards every day, you will always feel that you're not good enough, and that will lead to enormous stress. But you need to know something: you are enough. To be worthy of happiness you don't need to own certain things, look in certain ways, have a certain job, or have a certain salary.

Each of us has different circumstances in life, and that makes every path of our lives different and unique. Some of us take longer to find our passion, some of us choose to have a career that doesn't come with much money but much happiness, and some of us might decide not to have kids or get married at all. And there's nothing wrong with any of it.

Your life doesn't need to look like some people's Instagram feed. Your life just needs to feel like you, doing what you want, what makes you happy, what makes you content. Happiness is not a concept that will fit all of us, happiness is different, unique, and personal for each one of us.

People Who Are Not Worth It

Some people might think the more friends you have, the better. But the fact is, you don't need to have so many friends, just a few, but they respect you and actually care about you. Investing time and effort in a relationship where your efforts are not valued and reciprocated is a waste of energy and time, not to mention disheartening.

It's not about quantity but quality. Surround yourself with a few people who understand you, truly value you, accept your little weirdness, who will listen when you need to talk instead of comparing your life to theirs, and who will stay by your side when life gets rough. These genuine friends, they will help you achieve true happiness.

'The One'

Maybe it's because watching too many romantic unrealistic movies, but a lot of us are expecting that we will meet someone perfect, someone who will complete us, and then we'll get married and then enjoy our happily even after.

Those movies are made like that for one obvious reason: because that's not what is going to happen in the real world, that's why they made it happen in movies. There are over 8 billion people in this world, each one is different, and if you think that only one of those people is right for you, that's way too unrealistic.

If you want to be truly happy, stop chasing these things in a person. Instead of waiting and searching for someone who doesn't exist, why not stop for a little while and look around you. Maybe they are right in front of you this whole time, you just couldn't see it before. Maybe she's your coworker, maybe he's your friend who always understands and values you.