How to be Happier with what you have

Happy Chiropractor

Benjamin Franklin wisely said, “There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time.”

In other words, if you are striving to be more successful, more joyous or more anything, it doesn't mean you have to feel dissatisfied with your life right now. 

In fact, you can be ambitious and content at the same time, and this Lifehack article has some great suggestions to do so, such as:

  1. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket: Keep your interests diversified so one slip up won’t throw you off track. Ex. An “off” day at the office may be offset by “my best workout of the week.”
  2. Engineer your day: Experiment with changes in how you spend your time that can make your day more interesting, fun or fulfilling. Get up earlier, read every morning, eat your meals at different times, only do emails 1x per day instead of 6x (the average number of times per day a person checks their email). 
  3. Break comparisons: Try not to compare yourself to others. Base your satisfaction on your life only; on whether or not you have been a service to others. Find a need and FILL IT!

The more you focus your mind on the joyful things in your life right now, the more frequently you will experience joy. Of course, the opposite holds true as well. If you focus on what you don’t have, then you will continually feel like your life is lacking something.

Your happiness is not tied to any material possession or external achievement, yet many people mistakenly intertwine their ability to be happy with such things. You may feel you can’t be happy until you buy a bigger house, get your PhD, become a size zero, or become extremely wealthy, but this is quite far from the truth. These things will not make you happy. Only YOU can make you happy. 

Quite simply, you have the power to decide to be happy right now, exactly as your life is at this very moment.

Dr. Jason Yakimishyn and his sister, Dr. Jennifer Yakimishyn are co-owners of Foundation Chiropractic Co. in Oakville, ON.