You’ve heard it before and it’s true; you are your own worst enemy. The world is hard enough on you, but the stories you tell yourself inside your head can make it a lot harder to deal with the stress life throws at you.
Here are five lies we believe in moments of stress that take away our joy and happiness:
- We don’t deserve it – When something good happens, we can be a bigger jerk to ourselves than we would ever be to our best friend or our child. If you have unrealistic expectations or keep judging yourself too harshly, stop and enjoy the good things when they come along.
- We shouldn’t enjoy it, it won’t last – Good things come along and many don’t last forever. Instead of using that as a reason to not enjoy the good things when they come, that should make you more focused on enjoying it.
- We can’t have joy until… - Unreasonable expectations keep popping up, don’t they? High-achievers will tell you to delay your gratification until you’ve reached all of your goals, but it’s not realistic. Find the good things and enjoy them along the way; it’ll make hitting your goals easier.
- Our joy depends on someone or something else – Sure, everyone enjoys making the people they love happy, but making your happiness dependent on the happiness of someone else shouldn’t happen. You have to be able to find joy within yourself and your own life.
- We can’t focus on joy if we’re serious about our competitive edge – Why? You can be committed to achieving, being productive and effective, growth and leadership, and still be focused on creating and finding more joy while you do it!
Read the full article at Your Tango