Life has many secrets and I believe I figured one out. Let me start with a question: What makes you feel miserable? I mean, think about moments when you felt unhappy recently.
For me these are some of those moments:
- sitting in traffic and running late for a meeting
- realizing I forgot to bring my lunch and my wallet.
- running out of toilet paper in a public bathroom
- experiencing endless lines at check-in for my flight to Europe
- spilled coffee on my dress shirt while at work
What do these moments have in common?
There was no reason to feel unhappy. Because a) these moments were by no means tragic, rather comical and b) they were completely avoidable.
I felt bad because I was not in control in those moments. It sounds very trivial but I realized that control equals happiness. If you don’t like the word happiness then think contentment. But honestly, that doesn’t sound very catchy, does it?
So, what could I have done differently?
I could have started earlier (1 and 4). I could have checked in online (4), could have checked if there was enough toilet paper in the stall (3), leave my car key on my wallet or on my lunch (4) and simply keep a second dress shirt at work (5).
Those are probably pretty stupid examples, but my point is that I am much happier when I am in control. This is why I try to take a moment every day to think about how I can remain in control the next day.