The Struggle is Real

I wanted to be real and tell you that for the past few days I’ve been struggling. It’s impossible to be positive and happy all the time especially for someone like me. I wonder about the choices I’ve made and the fact that they have gotten me to where I am right now and in some respects I’m not happy about that. I’m not where I want to be in most aspects of my life. There are only two things I have that I love and that is my family and my job. I know that some people would say that’s more than some people have but everyone has their own measuring stick as to what they think makes them successful. I try and I try to look at the good things. I write in my gratitude journal and that is a big help most of the time. I would definitely recommend it. It takes a second just to write five quick things you are grateful everyday. It would be wrong of me to say that it works all the time because it isn’t working for me right now. But it will work in time because it always does eventually.

Did you ever think that you should be farther along than you are or that life really isn’t fair. I know it’s cliche but sometimes life really does suck. I’ve been someone who followed the straight and narrow path and never veered from what I was supposed to do or was expected to do from everyone around me. I thought that would guarantee me success with my life. But I struggle financially and that really brings me down emotionally. I will probably be paying my student loans long after I’m dead. It’s a burden that you start your life with right out of college. Anyway let’s just say I have lots of worries and frustrations and the feeling of being trapped. I sometimes feel like I am at the bottom of a big hole and every time I climb up just a little I get knocked back down. It is so frustrating. I just wanted to say sometimes dark days happen and you just have to ride it out until you get to the other side of it. Tomorrow I will feel a little better and the next day even more because I never give up. Sometimes I really want to but i never do. That’s I guess the most important message for today’s post and that is to never give up. Even when the dark cloud has descended upon you and you can’t find your way out just take a deep breath think of one good thing for that day and focus on that. Today my one grateful thought was that I could see and enjoy the sunshine. It’s a little thing but it helps me. It’s like the little grain of hope that you hate because it won’t let you give up and you want to but it’s there for that reason. It’s the spark of hope, it’s that tiny pinprick of light in that dark cloud. There is always a better day ahead no matter how hard today is. So I will leave you with this thought. Be grateful for just one small thing everyday and hold onto it tight and it will lead you back out of the dark to where happiness lives in the light. I wish happiness for everybody and I will always try to find it for myself too. Some days are more successful than others but I will keep climbing.

Always keep climbing my friends.

Fear vs. You

First of all I have to tell you something that just made me really happy. I just watched the season premiere of Game of Thrones and loved it!!! But it also got me thinking about fear. I would love to have a dragon of my own to ride and then I thought people would think that was stupid. Would I care though and the answer would be NO because I would have a freaking dragon. It is strange how my mind works but just stay with me and I promise this will make sense. Why do I, and maybe you, worry about the anonymous people that you don’t know that sit in judgement of your dream and why do any of us care. I have struggled with that my whole life, always being afraid of what “people” will think and then not doing what I wanted to do out of that fear of judgement. I have realized that those anonymous people aren’t even thinking about what you’re doing as much as you think they are. Truthfully everyone has their own stuff to deal with and they don’t care what you or I was doing. That realization took me a long time to understand. Now when it’s your friends who are judging you or holding you back then that means they aren’t your friend. What kind of friend wouldn’t want the best for someone they claim to care about. If it’s family that is judging you that makes it harder to deal with and they may be doing it out of their fear of change. It is no excuse but everyone fears change in one way or another and that’s when you have to just make the decision and plow right on through.

Here is what I’ve learned, do not let fear hold you back from your dream. You have to try no matter what. I was really afraid to start this blog and I put it off for a long time. I was afraid because I knew it would take time for me to learn how to make my website look good and I didn’t want everyone to think how much it sucks. I want everyone to see and hopefully think that what I write and put on my site is awesome. So I just thought to myself just get over it and start writing. Now I am hopefully creating a place where everyone can come and be themselves and maybe we can all learn from each other. That is my dream. So if I have one thing that I hope you take away from this post is never, never let fear of judgement or fear of following your dream stop you. The world needs me and you living our best life. I’m trying to do that and I hope you are to.

Have a great Monday and I’ll be back soon.

Why Did I Choose Happiness Preferred?

I started this blog with this name because I prefer happiness to sadness, I prefer sunshine to darkness. Unfortunately my nature goes more to the dark feelings of sadness, anger and frustration and that is why I started this blog so that I can remind myself of all the awesome things out there that make me happy. Happiness is different for everyone but for me there are lots of things that make me happy such as my family, my friends, travel, movies, music, comic books and reading books of all kinds. Those are just the things off the top of my head. I will write about all those things and more because those things bring me joy. I will also add pictures and videos as soon as I figure out how to do this on a blog. Some people find happiness in calmness and peacefulness while others find it in adventure and activities but its all good. I wanted to and hopefully this will become a place where people can talk and share their experiences. I’m curious to know what makes others happy. I also wanted to have a safe place to go and talk about good things. The internet, the news and social media has so much negativity right now that it was really started to get me down. The one thing I will never talk about here is politics. It just bums me out how everyone can be so mean to each other and say awful things and it seems to be ok to do that. It’s not ok.

I never want to hear dream deferred or happiness deferred which is why I chose happiness preferred. I prefer happiness for myself and for anyone who is kind enough to read this and become a part of my happiness community.