10 Reasons You’re Unhappy With Your Life…And How to Change it

culled from:grassrootssuccess.net

Most people think the key to happiness in life is the big things – you need to have lots of money, a prestigious job, all the best and newest things. You essentially have to live a life that impresses people. “If I just get that promotion I’ll be happier”, “if we can just save more money we’ll be happier” or the big one “if I could just win the lottery, all my problems would be solved and I’d be happy”. In reality, happiness is a choice you make every day, and there are a whole host of really simple things you can do to make sure of it each day. Here is a list of reasons why you’re not as happy as you could be, and how to change it.

1. You don’t get enough sleep

Sleep is a huge deal. When you don’t sleep enough you aren’t just tired, your ability to think and see the world positively plummets. Even missing 20 minutes from your optimal sleep time impairs cognitive function, so if you’re staying up late playing video games, watching tv, drinking etc, stop doing it. Think back to a time when you woke up feeling refreshed – go ahead and recreate that. Then work on getting it into a routine.

2. You wake up too late

People think that getting an extra 15 minutes sleep is worth the hassle of rushing through breakfast, showering etc before work. The way you start the day determines how your day is going to go, so if you’re frazzled and trying to do things at 100 miles an hour, you’re going to start work frazzled and not able to focus. The solution? Get to bed a bit earlier and wake up with plenty of time to do your morning routine in a relaxed manner, as though it’s the weekend. You’ll see the world in a different light each day.

3. You hang around with negative people

You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. If you’re hanging around with people that are always whining about the world, about their job, about everything, it’s going to bring you down. Then you’ll start whining about things, and pretty soon it will be a default state for you. Get the hell away from those kinds of people and start hanging around with positive, happy people.

4. You’re always looking at what you don’t have

If you spend your time looking at all the things you don’t have, you’ll be a poor man every day of your life. If you spend your time looking at all the things you do have and being thankful for them, you’ll realise how wealthy you are. Look for things to be grateful for every single day and really feel thankful for them, don’t just pay lip service to it. There are people in the world that don’t even have clean water to drink, so even a small thing like a cold glass of water on a hot day is something to be grateful for.

5. You try to multitask

Studies show that people who try to multitask think they are being effective when in reality they’d be better off focusing on one thing. People try to multitask at work thinking they’ll do it faster, but they only end up stressed trying to go from one thing to the next and forgetting things because they have too much on their plate. Focus on one task at a time and try to do similar work all in one hit – this is the easiest way to reach a flow state which will increase your efficiency exponentially and make you happier.

6. You spend far too much time sitting down

Before our species urbanised, we did physical work all day on farms, and walked everywhere. Before that, we got around in tribes and had to hunt for our food. Our species has spent a couple of million years moving all the time and walking everywhere. Now people sit at desks in offices all day, they sit in cars and they sit on the couch at home. More and more studies are showing that sitting down is literally killing people and can take decades off your life. Get out of your chair during the day and go for a walk. Don’t spend all your time at home sitting on the couch. This ties in with…

7. You’re not getting enough sun

The other way we have gotten away from our ancestors is that people spend way too much time indoors. You need sunlight for optimum health, and this new trend of taking capsules of vitamin D is the most stupid thing I have seen when the sun is right outside your door every day. If you’re from Norway and it’s the middle of winter, fine. If you’re anywhere that isn’t near the Arctic circle, for Christ sake go outside and get some sun.

8. You don’t exercise

This ties in with the sitting down. Our ancestors did hard physical work, or they spent a lot of time hunting which is very taxing on the body. If you don’t know by now all the benefits of exercise for your body, your mind and your emotions I’d say you’re living under a rock. The biggest benefit of exercise besides improving your health is stress reduction – if you’ve had a bad day, it clears your head like you wouldn’t believe. Do it regularly and you have a greater ability to focus and a more positive outlook on life.

9. You do all your interacting with other people online

Talking with someone behind a computer screen is not the same as talking to them face to face. Humans are a social species, and until a decade ago all of our interaction was in person, and sometimes on the phone. If you ever feel lonely and disconnected, this is why. Humans crave interaction and human touch such as handshakes, hugs, and kisses. You can’t get that texting or talking over Facebook. Get out and have lunch with your friends, play a game of soccer, go to the movies, have a chat over a glass of wine.

10. You have no goals

If you have nothing you’re striving for in life, it’s inevitable you’re going to end up in a rut. You won’t achieve anything, you won’t have any sense of satisfaction and your life will be dreary and pretty bleak. A goal can be something as simple as taking some surfing lessons, or learning to cook a three course meal. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but when you start giving up on trying to achieve anything, you turn into Peter Gibbens from the movie Office Space. Think of something you want to do, and get out there and do it.