How to be happy now?
What if we would be deeply grateful in our souls for the simple thing as waking up in the morning and still being alive? Everything else you have is a huge bonus.

When we are kids, we grow automatically. We don’t need goals, we have plenty of energy, and everything seems more straightforward. We can imagine all our dreams and desires and actually see them in the real world.
All of the things are new to us, and we experience them from the start. We can use all our energy and dedicate it to the things we care about.
But when we become older, we have to pursue our growth through goals and actions.
Growth isn’t automated anymore, and things become more complicated. Our vision of the world becomes more stable. Our metal cup fills up with how we see the world and how the world sees us.
We start asking more questions without answers, look for new ways to experience life. The amount of things to experience in life seems to decrease, and the overall flow of life looks more “comfortable.”
After listening to people who achieved a lot in life, it seems like you have to treat your current situation as a bad one to move from it to a better future.
It’s easy to push from the bottom because there’s no way down.
In the recent book I read, there was a description of training where people bond their hands and legs and then were thrown into the pool.
Their task is to survive within 5 minutes. Those who try to swim with bonded hands and legs ended up barely survived.
However, people who don’t panic slowly go down to the bottom of the pool, then push from the bottom and go up to take a breath. Then repeat this for all 5 minutes and complete the task.
This is how you can approach life when you are at the bottom. Focus all your energy on one goal and move towards it.
But what if you already achieved something? This way, you have to treat all your accomplishments as a “bottom” to move up and grow.
This usually gets you into depression (like it was with me) because everything you achieve instantly becomes the “bottom,” and you don’t really appreciate that.
All your current work and life seem unimportant because they become the ground for new goals when you achieve something. You’re living for some desired future that will never happen.
Yet there’s another way of doing things and achieving what you want.
To approach this way, you have to do few things:
1. First of all — accept that everything that happens in your life is your responsibility; and you, and only you, are the one who makes a choice;
2. Second — appreciate the present moment and what you already have in life. Look around, notice how much you already accomplished, and imagine how far you can go with that dream.
Now, you can act from your interest and move towards your dreams and desires with gratefulness, open-mindlessness, and positivity. At this point, you have everything you’ve dreamed of and have the vision to make it even better.
Remember, your happiness equals reality minus expectations.
Happiness = Reality - Expectations
It doesn’t mean you don’t have to desire something or set goals. It means you should be acting from your interest and not because you have to.
Have to prove something to someone, have to achieve the results because of the effects themselves.
Stop. Appreciate life. Imagine your desired future and make it happen every single day.