I will be happy when...I get this or that thing. If only this relationship were different. If only I had this car or house or yacht or job or prestige or influence or…then I would be happy. Each of us has our own seemingly endless list designed to ensure our happiness should we somehow attain what is on it. The problem is not what happens when we don’t get what we want; the problem is what happens when we do get what we want. Often what we hope will bring us happiness becomes an object of contempt because it fails to bring us the happiness it promised, or rather the happiness we promised ourselves should we obtain it. Rather than enjoying these things in their rightful place, we place upon them the burden of making us happy--a burden they were never meant to carry. Freeing these people and things from the burden of securing our happiness has the surprising effect of enabling us to truly enjoy them. What or whom have you burdened with ensuring your happiness?
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