Hi everyone, I want to talk about How Not To Be Miserable today, but before we talk about that, let’s see the ultimate recipe for permanent misery.
Here’s a recipe for permanent misery.
a) Decide how you think the world should be
b) Make rules for how everybody should behave
Then when the world doesn’t obey your rules, get angry! That’s what miserable people do.
Let’s say you expect that:
1. People should return favour
2. People should appreciate your hard work
3. People should be kind always
These expectations sound very reasonable. But often these things won’t always happen. So you end up frustrated and disappointed.
There’s a better strategy. Make fewer demands and less expectations. The keyword here is:
BE FLEXIBLE.
Have a preference instead. For things that are beyond your control, tell yourself that “I would prefer A, but if B happens, it’s okay too!”
If you keep this habit, you will have more peace of mind. For example, I’ve always prefer people to be kind and polite, but if I meet rude people, of course I would be angry for a while (I’m human by the way lol) and then I just move on quickly because I don’t want them to ruin my beautiful day.