It’s so simple it’s difficult

That is how I feel about life in general sometimes.  You ever sit around and contemplate something to the extent of brooding over it so it bothers you and all of sudden the answer comes to you and you want to laugh at how simple the answer is? 

On the plane ride back from Italy I was sitting in the chair and noticed how big my stomach looked.  Granted I was slouched with extremely bad posture in coach seating but still.  I don’t have a six pack yet I’m not in the spare tire area either.  I have a little something that if I stand up straight and think about it goes away.  But of course I have to obsess over it.  A year ago I didn’t look like this.  A year ago I was close to a 6 pack. 

My first action was to complain to Mel.  “I’m getting fat.”  Mel being ever supportive said that I wasn’t.  Yet this didn’t make me feel better and I commenced to worry about getting fat.  I spent a good 2 days feeling like crap worrying about eating better and not getting fat.  Then it dawned on me.

Start working out again and stop worrying.  Now this might seem comical and very logical but honestly I was so focused on the problem – I put on some weight – and worrying over the unrealized future – I didn’t want to get fat – that I couldn’t see the solution.  Which of course is to eat better, start working out, and most importantly stop worrying about it.  Very simple indeed.

This brings me to two more points.  First, much of our unhappiness in this world comes from us.  I truly believe that all of our happiness is inside us and it is up to us to realize it.  Granted this is much harder to do than say and I am daily trying to remember it.  Trying to realize my happiness becomes extremely difficult during hour 5 of staring at Excel spreadsheets and making endless power points.  Second, it’s not the actual acquisition of something that brings us true happiness.  It’s the journey.  I’m constantly making the mistake of saying “I’ll be happy when we get our farm.”   But what about now?  I can’t be happy now? 

“My job makes me unhappy.”  Find a new one, hopefully your dream one.  It’s exciting to work toward a goal like that.  Plus making the physical and mental steps toward it alleviates the worry you feel.  If you have nothing to worry about how can you not be happy?

I used to worry about money.  Every paycheck was spreadsheet hell as to where money was allocated.  If I wanted to do this then the money had to come from over here.  Sometimes money was spent months in advance!  So I got out of debt so that I wouldn’t have to make payments if I fell on really hard times.   I also drove down my expenses to the bare minimum.  I actually need very little to live off of and all the rest goes toward starting up our farm or bad times.  Worry gone.  Every day that I got closer to being debt free made me happy. 

The fact that this sounds easier than it is isn’t lost on me.  In fact that’s the reason why we get stuck in these situations.  Why there is so much unhappiness in the world.   Most of the times the answer is so simple it’s difficult.