Happiness is?

The Beatles said Happiness is a warm gun, I love the song, but I think that idea of happiness is  more complex than this.

Questions to Ask Yourself

There are many people out there who are living their life as they want to.  They are working hard doing what they absolutely love to do.  The most successful people are those who work toward the things they are passionate about and love.  There are many reasons for this.  The more you love what you do the harder you are going to work at it because you will be enjoying your work.

Do you feel like you are bored with your life or not doing what you should be doing with it? If so then maybe it is time to make a change.  Yes, there may be obstacles or fears holding you back from accomplishing the goals you have set forth in your life.  But isn’t time to get past the obstacles and try to make your dreams happen?

One of the obstacles is self-imposed, and that is the fact that many people aren’t quite sure what their true passion is.  These people want to work toward being successful but they just aren’t sure what it is that they can do.  Finding your passion is possible but it will take some deep searching within yourself.  Your passion may be right in front of you and you don’t even realize it.

Here is a little known secret, every passion has the capability of making money.  It is just seeing the angle you need to take to make this happen.  Don’t  sit around and avoid your passion because you don’t think you could financially survive on living it,  because you can.  However, if you look for your passion with the idea of making money, you won’t, seek your passion, find it, work at it, and money will come, you need to search for your passion  because working at your passion will make you happy and fulfilled.

When you are looking for your true passion because you seek happiness in your life or that there is a gap you need to fill there are many questions you need to ask yourself. 

Carefully answering these questions will help you understand more about yourself and possibly what might be holding yourself back from being happy and pursuing your passions.  Here are many questions you should ask yourself.  You might want to get out a notepad to answer these questions or just make a mental note.  Writing the answers down is usually better because writing the answer down forces you to make the idea real. By making the idea real, you may decide to take action.

What really inspires and engages you?

This question may be a little difficult to answer but you may find the answer after you finish the rest of the questions.  However, you need to be very clear about where you get your inspiration from.  What are the types of things you find engaging and exciting? 

If you couldn’t fail, what would you do?

Many people don’t do things because they are afraid to fail or they have failed in the past.  If there is something that you would do for sure if you knew there isn’t a chance whatsoever of failing what would that be? 

If you were forced to start over again, what would you do?

Many people find themselves in situations where they have fallen into a situation where they are not doing as they wish they were.  They go to work because they have to not enjoying a single day of it.  If you started over again would you take advantage of the new beginning or would you go back to where you are?  What would you do?

If money wasn’t an issue, what would you do?

Many people have dreams they wish to pursue but they never attempt to move forward with the dreams because they cannot afford to get started.  Think of what you would love to do if you had the money to do it.  This can be anything.

What is your biggest dream?

If you have a big dream, what is it?  There must be something you really want to do that you dream about.  Think about this one thing and focus on it.

What is the biggest barrier stopping you from following your dream?

Name all of the things that have caused you to not follow your big dreams.  These things could be people who do not support you, money, fears, and other things.  There are many different types of barriers which can be overcome.  You might not see opportunity or success with your dreams or you may fear that people would make fun of you.  You might not even be skilled and lack talent.  These could be barriers causing you not to move forward.

What passion are you afraid of owning or admitting?

Many people have dreams and passions they are afraid to talk about out of fear of being made fun of by other people.  You might think your passion is silly to other people.  What is this one thing?

As a child, what did you really want to be?

Did you have dreams of becoming someone as a child and it didn’t turn out quite as expected?  Do you still wonder what it would have been like if you did follow your dreams as a child?  If you had the opportunity, would you follow this dream today?

If you were going to die in the near future, what would you regret not doing?

Many people have regrets when they realize they are going to die real soon.  It is often too late for many people to go back and change the things they missed out on.  They would have lived their lives completely differently if they had the chance.  If a doctor told you that you hadn’t any time left but a few weeks, then what would your regrets be?  What would you want to do before your time was up?

Now that you have answered these questions you should have a good idea of some of the things that make you happy. You may also have a clearer idea of your dreams. 

Just think about if you won the lottery and what you would do with the money.  What would you do with yourself?  Knowing these things is very important.

In my next post on this topic I will discuss some ideas on Peak Experiences and Existing Talents