This or that

“You can’t achieve anything in life without a some amount of sacrifice.”

Decisions are made every single day that dictate where you end up at the end of your own personal journey. Most decisions are minor, but crucial decisions are made each day that determine where you end up.

Some of these decisions are repetitive, mindless decisions that take very little contemplation. You may not realize it, but these might be the decisions that are shaping your life into what it is.

IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY, TAKE A DEEPER LOOK INTO WHAT YOU DO EACH DAY.

What is making you happy and what is stealing your joy?

For most of you, the small little impulses you have that satisfy you in the moment are what is stealing your joy.

If you feel unhappy with where you are, ask yourself WHY? Break down what you are unhappy about. Do you think you could be happier if you tried harder?

Typically that is what brings you down:

UNDERACHIEVING THE EXPECTATIONS YOU HAVE OF YOURSELF.

If you know where you are underachieving your expectations, key in on them and change them.

For example, if you are underachieving the expectation of what you’d like to look like ask yourself what decisions you are making each day that are causing you to feel lesser. Let’s say you are indulging in overeating because you are stressed about something. Make yourself aware that your overconsumption habit is what is making you unhappy.

If your goal is to be happy (I believe this is everyone’s goal), then it should be easy to cut off this bad habit. Constantly remind yourself that your bad habit is what is making you unhappy. Replace it with something that makes you feel better about yourself such as going outside. Make the small sacrifice of resisting the urge to overeat and replace it with a better habit.

Once you start to figure out the root of your unhappiness, you can realistically fix every problem you have. You just have to choose this or that. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t choose instant gratification and expect lasting happiness.

About 2 years ago, I started breaking down where I felt unhappy in my life. I traced the root of these problems to my desire for instant gratification. I was chasing temporary highs and confused why I wasn’t happy all the time. Rather than making small sacrifices, I was always choosing to do the thing that made me happy in the moment.

It takes maturity to figure out why you are unhappy. You have to be brutally honest with yourself and understand what you are feeling. Sometimes you have to make decisions that will hurt in the current moment. But in the end, they end up helping you more than you could have imagined.

I have gone through this enough times to be able to recognize patterns in my own life. I have become more self-aware of what I am doing and it has resulted in better identification of the root of discontent in my life.

EVERYTHING IN LIFE HAS TO BE A THIS OR THAT.

You can’t have instant gratification and lasting happiness.

They do not go hand in hand.

Choose the thing that you will be proud of doing 5 years in the future.

Choose the thing that you will look back and say “I’m happy I did that.”

Make the small sacrifices so you can live the best life.

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Thank you for reading!

My goal is to inspire self-improvement in others through my personal stories and experiences.

This is The Exploration.