We are taught all through life that we need to have financial freedom, perfect relationships, great health, and have passion for whatever we do and we are told that all of them are supposed to ensure that we are happy! Wouldn’t it be great if those things really could give us happiness? There are many people, however, who have adequate financial freedom, exciting relationships and sound health yet still find it difficult to be happy and it can be something that seems to elude them constantly! Why does that happen even though they seem to have everything? The simple reason is that they are probably looking for happiness in the wrong things and wrong places!

Are we really sure of what makes us truly happy? This awareness of ourselves will help us define ways to achieve happiness. Unless we understand the destination, how will we be able to plan a path to reach there? Our awareness of what excites us, what irritates us, what motivates us, what makes us feel sad, angry, happy and ecstatic, is essential to be able to identify the various things that can give us the happiness we crave. Without ever knowing what causes happiness for us and what creates sadness in us and why this happens, how can we know what to achieve and what not to achieve?

So, self-awareness is the most important aspect we need to focus on first in order to become happy. What is this self-awareness? Let us consider that we have a fight with our spouse. We might have thought that we had been caring and helpful to them recently, but they point out that we have been spending most of our time absorbed in work and haven’t really been present with them. Their objective feedback allows you to become more aware of your own behaviour. Just like the mirror shows us what we really look like, we need to have a mechanism or a process that can help us ‘see’ ourselves, and gain more awareness.

This is the true benefit of personal development. This topic is explored fully in my brand new book “The Personal Development Handbook” which will be available in a couple of weeks.