The Happiness Equation By Neil Parischa
I was unhappy with the trajectory of my life. It wasn’t going the way I expected it to and it was killing me. As I was growing up, I thought I would travel to different places, meet new people, try exciting food and rejoice the memories. I turned out to be doing none of it. Instead I would lie around all day and procrastinate and it made me really unhappy not being able to achieve anything. Have you ever felt deep unhappiness as well?
“If you live in a past dream, you don’t enjoy what is happening right now because you will always wish it to be different than it is. There is no time to miss anyone or anything because you are alive. Not enjoying what is happening right now is living in the past and being only half alive. This leads to self pity, suffering and tears.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz
So I wasn’t being myself. I wasn’t trying hard to achieve anything. In fact I didn’t even had any goal to start with. The expectations I had with myself to make myself happy were shattering one by one before my eyes. I could spend all the time playing video games but I wouldn’t do my homework or even go out to meet my friends. I was consoling myself that I will do it all later but deep down I knew I was just fooling myself.
One day I was passing by my the public library and saw one of my friend going into the library. So I went to him to talk and we ended up having a long conversation in the library itself. While we were leaving he went on to pick up the book he came for, and asked me to get one too. My casual search brought my attention to this book and I got totally excited upon seeing it’s title. That’s how I got the book.
“If others tell us something we make assumptions, and if they don’t tell us something we make assumptions to fulfill our need to know and to replace the need to communicate. Even if we hear something and we don’t understand we make assumptions about what it means and then believe the assumptions. We make all sorts of assumptions because we don’t have the courage to ask questions.”
― Miguel Ruiz
This book was a myth buster for me. I realized I just complicated it all in my head. This book took me through simple, fundamental yet interesting steps to be able to work towards my happiness. Being happy doesn’t always mean living in a dream life. There’s much more to it than it. It’s about the little goals that we achieve not the one big happy moment. I was setting long term goals.
It really helped me understand how short goals matter the most in our life and how having control over them is the key to define our day. I found it really productive once I started implementing it. It’s not just about goals, it’s also about our goals. We often set our goals based on how other people do it and we try to become the ideal version of how we see it as. What we should do, rather, is stop taking advice and go with our heart. We might regret the decision later but it will be based on our perspective and we 100% own it. The more we learn to work for our happiness, the more satisfied and content we will be.
BOOK POINTERS
Goal — We need to set our own goals. Every day right after waking up, you should know what goal needs to be accomplished on this day. Having a goal for the day keeps us motivated as it provides us with a direction to go by.
Passion — Doing what we love everyday doesn’t just help us to be happy but also helps in growing and learning. It will bring more happiness in our life than a few more bucks that we might get from being in a dead end career.
Get Productive — Cutting out even one hour from our everyday lives will add a month to our year. It can be done by simply cutting off distractions. And who wouldn’t like more time that we can spend by ourselves?
Just Do It — We tend to sleep on ideas and keep overthinking when it comes to action. Instead of thinking how the outcome will turn out to be, just do it. If we don’t even start, we will never know if we can do it or not. So just do it.
“You can have many great ideas in your head, but what makes the difference is the action. Without action upon an idea, there will be no manifestation, no results, and no reward”
― Don Miguel Ruiz
Have Controllable Goals — We often set out schedules and goals in an ideal way, not the way it should suit us. Set achievable goals so that you have full control over them. It helps in having overall control over our lives.
Rely On Yourself — What do we do when we want to learn something we haven’t tried? We look for someone for advice. Advice is just meant to suit certain situations. Take your own decisions instead of relying on someone else’s. It will make you happy in the longer term.
“Also, go inside and listen to your body, because your body will never lie to you. Your mind will play tricks, but the way you feel in your heart, in your guts, is the truth.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz
What I Learned From The Book
Take your own decisions, get productive, and do it without having to rely on advice. It will make you happy in the long term.
CONCLUSION
While chasing happiness, we forget that it lies inside us. This book will help you realize how important it is to not chase happiness but work for it. If you think your life has got monotonous, then this one is definitely for you. It will help you understand how the simplest of things can impact us positively in the long run.
Thank you for reading. I am an avid reader. My aim is to summarise many more books and spread the knowledge and wisdom. Follow my blog for more book summaries. I Read! I Learn! I Implement!
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