What’s important to you? And what makes you happy?

I ask, because they’re two different things.

Important things need us and make us feel like we need them. Everybody wants to feel needed. And so we believe that if we surround ourselves with things that are important to us, we’ll be needed.

And happy.

I know quite a few people whose families are important to them. Well, most people I know have families that are important to them. But quite a few of those people’s families don’t make them happy. Just busy. I know several people whose jobs are important to them. But their jobs don’t make them happy. Just busy. Same thing with certain friends, fancy stuff, you name it. Things that are important, but don’t necessarily bring happiness.

It’s a hard truth. And if it makes you bristle, tell me this: do you wake up everyday saying “OH MY GOD I’M ALIVE, THANK YOU FOR ANOTHER DAY ON THE PLANET!!!!” or are those first moments taken over by strategizing and planning and hoping you can manage all these things you’ve surrounded yourself with that are important to you?

At this point you may be pissed at me. Who am I to tell you that your important things aren’t making you happy?

If you’re pissed at me, you’re probably one of those people who thought that surrounding yourself with important things would make you happy.

And if you’re pissed at me, it’s also probably because you’re deep in the important things, too deep to walk away.

So don’t walk away. Embrace the important things. Play the card you’ve been dealt (you likely were the dealer, after all) with beauty and grace.

Just let go of the expectation that what is important to you is always supposed to make you happy.

Because they aren’t always the same thing.

And realizing this opens a door to being a lot happier.

It did for me.