The "Pursuit" of Happiness

So often we don't listen to ourselves. We ask everyone else around us, even total strangers for advice on our own lives. Are we so crippled that we don't even know how to talk to ourselves?

I'm trying to talk to myself after years of the silent treatment. I have ignored my own self in the pursuit of what I thought was supposed to be important. In the end, all you have is you...so you better like that person.

All too often, we say if we just achieve X, Y, Z...THEN we would be happy with ourselves and love that person that we are. I say, you love yourself NOW and be happy with who you are NOW and you will become that person. This is not to be complacent with who we are and the lives we lead. Oh no, we are in an ever changing cycle of becoming someone new. As is everything around us. I am not the same person I was five years ago, five months ago, five weeks ago, five days ago, five hours ago...even five minutes ago. Literally and figuratively speaking. My cells are ever changing in my body, and my thoughts are ever moving.

By thinking I want to be different, I AM different. By thinking I want to change something in my life, I HAVE changed it. It's just a matter of the physical catching up to the mental. You can't be unhappy because you haven't "reached your goal" yet. You HAVE reached it, just by thinking it.

Be happy in the now. Make your decisions on what makes you happy NOW. Do not confuse instant gratification with true happiness either. Don't make excuses. Really look deep and to the core and ask yourself what would make you happy. And then do it. Don't let fear and doubt enter your mind. Just BE.