Finding real happines

What makes you really happy?

What do you want out of life?

Does what you have not satisfy you and therefore you want more?

Do you feel you are in competition with others to reach the top?

Do you strive to maintain your grasp on things like power and status, afraid of what might happen if you lost them? And is this preventing you from enjoying life to the full?

What are the consequences of your striving to achieve or obtain more? Are you feeling increasingly stressed?

True happiness is not possible unless you have inner peace.   Inner peace requires your to take the time to sit and look deeply at what you are doing.  Without this awareness and understanding you will be unable to identify and meet your  real needs.   Real happiness requires understanding, love and compassion for yourself and others.

Happiness also depends on your having the ability to handle painful feeelings.  Handling painful feelings requires you to stop running away from or difficulties with constant activity or consumption.

Finding real  happiness is not a selfish act because once you have found real happiness you will be better able to relate to other people and their suffering, to put yourself in theor position.  Once you do this you will then have a better idea of what you need to do to help them.

Controlling Ambition

On a scale of 0 -10 how ambitious are you?

What role does ambition play in your life?

These are both questions I have been asking myself recently as a prelude to making some tough decisions about the direction in which my life will take me.

I have also been exploring my thoughts and feelings around ambition and how ambition affects my behaviour. There have defintely been times when ambition has dictated different aspects of my life, including my relationships with other people.

Ambition has defintely prevented me from enjoying life as I stressed about and planned the future.

I have goals in my life and  I know from experience that achieving these goals depends upon the condition and quality of my mind.  I now know that if my mind is calm and clear then I see things more clearly and I perform better.

I am also aware that I am not as ambitious now and that I am more content.  I know that in order for me to be happy I need faith in myself and what I am doing.  I need to work hard and to be able to  focus on what is important to me, I also need to be mindful in order to gain fresh insights.

But I am left wondering….Can you be ambitious and content?