I’m not sure when exactly I made this decision, but I guess it must have happened somewhere in 2014, which I’m pretty sure was my shittiest year to date. I was thinking too much, I complained a lot about anything, everything and to everyone (not sure I was very nice company) and above all I felt unhappy. Something happened the other day when I suddenly realized I don’t complain much any more and that it has made me a happier person.
You might not believe so, but writing blog posts really does take a lot of time. One morning I was working on From The Archives: 5X Work outfits and from writing the text, inserting the right links and playing around with the composition of images it took me around two hours to complete. I’ve never had problems with WordPress like this before, but after I hit publish the whole post just disappeared. It was nowhere to be found. Instead of swearing, hitting my laptop or whatever you’d do when you find out two hours of work is gone and you have to leave the house in an hour, I decided to start all over again.
Surprisingly enough I remembered most of the written content and was able to re-write the piece within about 45 minutes. I wouldn’t have managed to do that if I had decided to stay frustrated about what had just happened. Very simple example, I know, I know. But the point is that your attitude really does change so much for your quality of life on a day to day basis.
Let’s get back to 2014, what I believe is the main reason that I changed. 2014 was a hell of a year. I didn’t know what to do with my life, I felt homesick, months of preparation to move Dubai was cancelled due to paper work (the whole house was already packed up, can you imagine?) and then there were tons of things going on in my personal life that made everything even harder to deal with. The worst thing of it all was that I kept most of it to myself, I didn’t tell my family how bad I was doing, and neither did I tell my friends. Until one day when I was outside for a walk talking to my sister on the phone and I just broke down. I hate showing emotion in public, but there I was crying on the street. I felt exhausted, emotionally drained and ready to sleep for about a year.
It was just after that breakdown that something in my mind just clicked. How good would it be if I can just have a positive and happy mindset regardless of the situation I’m in? It sounds weird, but I just started smiling even when I felt everything but happy. I approached people differently and they started to approach me differently too. I decided to not look too far ahead in the future and it gave me peace of mind. I also stopped letting myself get affected by people’s bad moods or temper. What people do to me should not affect how happy I feel or what I think about myself.
This whole “I saw the light” story by the way didn’t mean the circumstances in my life got better. In fact, they probably got much worse. At least, I think you can probably say so if your relationship breaks, you quit your job and move to the other side of the world with no belongings other than 1 suitcase. However, that new found attitude of finding happiness in the small things, having faith in the future and just a sense of peace in my mind made all the difference in my life.
I guess after all, having the worst year ever in 2014 might have turned out to be the biggest blessing as it helped me to see everything in perspective, complain less (a LOT less!) and be willing to adapt and be flexible about everything going in my life since there are never any guarantees anyway.
I’m really curious about your personal stories. What are your biggest eye openers in life so far? Do you complain a lot?
