Being happy professionally is really the ability to do what you love doing the way you want to do it. Which is, if you have a natural talent and you have honed it to a world-class standard, you want the creative and professional space to express this talent your way. However, because your customers â both paying customers and society at large â want to control what they want from you, there may be times when you feel suffocated and unhappy. Ask yourself: is it worth doing something for money or social acclaim/validation at the cost of your inner peace or Happiness? If the answer to this question is ânoâ â choose to be âhumbly ruthlessâ. Be unflinching and non-negotiable on your professional and creative standards. Yet take that position with all humility, knowing fully well that someone else may fulfil that need for your customer should you opt out. Surprisingly though, 9 times out of 10, people may come back and work with you. The one deal that breaks off may have never made you happy; so, really, no sweat there! This is the key to Happiness â being âhumbly ruthlessâ!
Your job is to set out on Lifeâs journey as a voyager, which you already have by having been born (an act that, well, happened beyond you!). Lifeâs job is to reach you to the shore, which it eventually will, but not before it has tossed you up and down and churned your insides several times over. So, donât sweat over anything. It is simply not worth it! Remember: your Lifeâs happening exactly the way it must. Train your mind to be non-worrying, non-frustrated and non-suffering. Be happy! Let Life take over, you simply go with the flowâŠ!
Even if the world says so, and you know it too, that you have genius, donât allow it to carry you away. You are, just like anybody else is, ordinary. You are a mere instrument that Life uses to express itself. âYourâ art is actually not even yours â it comes from a divine Source, flows through you, so it can touch the world. So, no matter how talented, famous and wealthy you are, know that you are just a microphone, a messenger, that is amplifying a message that is passing through you. How can a messenger ever take credit for the message? This doesnât mean you must not celebrate yourself or market yourself well or profit economically. Surely, you may! But do it being fully aware that without the Source choosing you, without âyourâ art flowing through you, there would be no acclaim, no recognition. So, stay humble, stay grateful!
Donât grieve that your child has a problem. Donât wish for the problem to go away either. And certainly donât imagine that âbad timesâ have befallen your child owing to âbad karmaâ! The truth is that no matter what you do or wish for, your child has to go through what they have to go through. Just as Life happened to you in its own unique way, it will happen to your child too. You canât change that reality. Nor can you live your childâs Life. So, be practical. Be available for your child surely and invest in prayer. A crisis is Lifeâs way of coaching your child. So, pray that your child learns to face Life, not fight it or run away from it! Pray that your child evolves spiritually from the experience â often growing stronger, wiser and happy from it.
When you wish pain and suffering on someone who wronged you, what is actually happening is that you are still cooking within yourself. You are the one who is suffering. And you are expressing this suffering by wishing that your perpetrator must also suffer. Now, this reaction is normal; it is human to feel this way. But if you pause and reflect quietly, you will see the futility of causing your own suffering. If you must fight your perpetrator legally, do that. But do that dispassionately, without acrimony; let it simply be a clinical process. You donât have to even forgive the person if you really are not feeling like it yet. But stop wishing that they suffer. Thatâs a big step forward in your own healing. When you take this step, over time, you will realize that Life always serves retribution at its own pace and that nothing liberates you as much as forgiveness does!
When you are confronted with many problems at the same time, donât be overwhelmed or emotional and attempt to solve all of them at the same time. You simply canât. Approach your problems with basic project management skills. Sort your problems into different buckets: A. which ones cannot be solved ever B. which ones cannot be solved by you C. which ones can be solved by you over time and D. which ones can be solved by you immediately? Obviously, go to work today on bucket D, while planning to schedule time and collaborations to address buckets C and B. Of course, learn to accept those in bucket A with humility and equanimity and move on. This is the only way you can focus sharply, be calm and find strength in a storm and be happy!