I was sitting by an open fire last night in an Indian restaurant by a lake in the spanish countryside.
My buddy was asking me about happiness and I was talking to her about the difference between improving your standard of living and your quality of life. Big difference!
While improving your standard of living is a worthwhile objective, it is good to pause for a moment to notice how good we already have it. If you´re reading this you have electricity, internet access - not to mention food and shelter. There is no reason to take this for granted.
Most of the six billion people on this planet don´t even have clean running water. They would be stunned to see how concerned many of the people in the richest nations are about their standard of living.
The irony of it all is that when you give more attention to your quality of life you will have more peace of mind, more happiness and more time to enjoy the people and the things you love.
This in turn gives you more energy to be productive and effective in the world, giving rise to an even better standard of living if that is what you want.
Having more will not make you happier. It will not improve your quality of life. Yes, more money can ease certain hassles and day to day pressures however success brings with it other issues to deal with. You may find all you do is upgrade your concerns!
I contend that success is the ultimate challenge! Can you handle it when you have it? And that is why quality of life is the ultimate goal - in the form of health and vitality, happiness and peace of mind. Success may come and go but feeling happy can endure regardless when you master releasing.
How hard is it to have peace of mind? It´s easier than you think actually. Can you let go of one distracting thought? Yes, of course you can! Let go of two? Yes! Three, four, five, and so on....
It all comes back to one fundamental principle - you can let go of any self-imposed limitation and thereby have more quality of life and more happiness.
A little releasing a day goes a long way...........
