The Three Keys To Happiness

When catching up on various blogs in my Google Reader, my attention was caught by one of the post titles in Gather Little By Little’s weekly roundup. “Three Keys to Finding True Happiness.” With a title like that, who could resist clicking?

Frugal Dad’s post describes and clarifies a radio talk show host’s personal keys to happiness, three simple necessities that most people already possess. I especially enjoyed the way he described the final key:

Something to Hope For. Everyone should have something to hope for. Something that drives them towards a goal. It’s been said that if you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it every time. Have something to aim for; a dream that you hold close and never let completely out of sight. When people lose hope they get complacent, and complacency often leads to a poor attitude. This self-perpetuating cycle of negativity can lead to serious depression, and ultimately harm cherished relationships. I know, I’ve been in a rut myself and I lost sight of the dreams I once held close. But all hope is never lost, you just may have to work a little harder temporarily to catch up and see those dreams around the next corner again.

Sometimes when the worries and stresses of everyday life pile up, it’s easy to put dreams on hold and lose sight of the many blessings around us. Keeping a positive outlook in the face of challenge is incredibly difficult. However, no matter how bad things might seem, they always have a way of working themselves out (or getting worked out) in the end as long as you still have hope.

This post moved me because right now, with the concrete goal that I was working towards for the past two years finally achieved, I’ve been caught in a rut. I have a lot of smaller goals and dreams floating around inside my head, but I’ve just been waiting in a holding pattern for those dreams to congeal into a larger purpose. Maybe I need to try to work on those dreams individually for a change and see what larger things they snowball into.

For the other two “Keys to Happiness,” check out the original post.