Happiness Factor- What You See On The Inside, Is Who You Are On The Outside.
Have you ever told a lie? Even just a small misrepresentation of the facts? Maybe even something tiny that you were positive that no one would ever know? Did you feel better or worse after you did it? Chances are you felt like a liar, and I don't say this to be cruel, it's just a statement of the most likely outcome. Now some people would say that because you lied you felt like a liar, I say the inverse, because you felt like a liar, you lied.
How exactly does that work? It's pretty simple, every action we perform begins as a thought, and that thought runs through all of our internal filters to see if it is congruent with our own perception of who we are, if the thought makes it through all the filters we naturally will be able to perform the action. If the thought conflicts with one of our inner values, the performance of the action gets called into question. This all happens in nanoseconds and we are generally unaware that we are even doing it, but essentially if you are a person who smiles at everyone you meet, it's almost as though you don't think about it, the thought becomes the action because it passes right through the filters, transversely if you are trying to smile at everyone you meet, but up until this point you have chosen to be a shy person then the action gets called into conflict with who you have defined yourself as being and you hesitate before performing the action. I believe that hesitation is the surest sign that you are contemplating an action that is inconsistent with at least part of your current definition of self.
Often times we have an inner conflict where two of our self defined values conflict, for example, most of the time you are a person who is 100% honest, while at the same time you have defined yourself as someone who needs the approval of others. When presented with the option of lying to gain the approval of others your mind weighs out which value is more important to you and chooses the action that is most consistent with the strongest value. If you go ahead with the lie, it shows that your need for others approval outweighs your own need to perceive yourself as an honest person, also if you choose to tell the truth and risk the disapproval of others, it shows that honesty is more important to you.
This may seem to conflict with the statement I made above that says "because you felt like a liar, you lied," but further looking into it we can see that in order to lie we have to feel like a liar, so when we perform the action that is consistent with the stronger value we put aside the weaker value and choose not to define ourselves as an honest person, but we choose to define ourselves as a person seeking the approval of others, and in our minds to win the approval of others we feel that we must lie, and so we make the choice to lie, we become a liar, and then perform the act.
This is true of positive things as well, like I mentioned above, if you have defined yourself as a shy person, and you want to be more outgoing, you may choose to smile at each person you make eye contact with, this choice must overpower your own self perception as a shy person so that when the conflict arises as to whether or not you will smile at everyone you make eye contact with you need to see yourself on the inside as an outgoing friendly person, and the stronger you make that image on the inside, the higher the likelihood that you will be able to break through the old self perception and move in the direction that you feel will bring you more happiness.
What you perceive yourself to be on the inside is everything, so essentially any change you want to make in your life must start from inside of you, it's not that when you achieve the result you will have succeeded, it's when you see yourself as successful you will achieve the result. Whether it be greater happiness, inner peace, better relationships, or even greater financial prosperity, the first step is to see yourself as having accomplished what you desire, and when you truly see yourself as the person you want to be, your actions begin to fall in line with the self perception that you have created, and as you act consistently with your new values you will undoubtedly achieve those things that you want. You can have everything that you desire, just be the type of person that gets everything they desire.
So many people want to get happy now, but are relying on things outside of them to improve how they feel. I believe very strongly that YOU ARE HAPPINESS! All that you need to fell good is already inside of you. YOU are the answer! And you can unlock the happiness that is inside of you.
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