Focusing Illusion: The Ultimate Key to Happiness!

We tend to get impatient and angry about meager things in life. I was trying to load one of our programs at work and it won’t open. What seemed like an eternity was actually just 30 seconds of delay, because there was some network error of some sort. I think you can relate to when we try to open a program on our phone and it tends to take 10 secs we lose are poop. If we add all of these delays, it might add up to 8-10 hours. But the amount of stress that can be avoided is paramount. We can probably increase our lifetime by at least a year as we will be less anxious and that has innumerable health and benefits.

This problem is called the focusing illusion. We tend to focus on things that are not great in our life, instead of focusing on the bigger picture. The narrow-mindedness of our race is the reason why no one is happy in this life. By no one, I mean no one. I am saying this from experience, it seems to us that the grass is greener on the other side, but it never is. Think about a time when you wanted a job or anything else, you got it but are you satisfied? No! We never are. Think of a kid for example. A kid might have 10 toys, if you take one of his toys away from him, even if he is not playing with the toy he will start crying. We are the same. We won't focus on the 10 things that are great in life but we will focus on the one thing that is not great.

If we use it to our advantage, life can be so fruitful. If we forget about the one thing and change our focusing illusion to the positives, there is no way that we will not be happy in life. Now, this also means that we start thinking about money as a relative concept. I remember my cousin wanted to build a house in the posh area of our city and he was finally able to build one and was super stoked. But this year, someone is building a house which is bigger than his right next to him. He is no longer satisfied with his house. I mean it's understandable, but he worked day in and day out for 7 years to achieve his dream, but now he is no longer happy. He is comparing his house with what someone is building next to him, instead of focusing on the fact that he was living in a shitty apartment for 7 years grinding day in and day out to achieve his dream which now seems worthless.

It is easier said than done, but practice makes perfect and if we start being grateful for what we have instead of being jealous of others, we can achieve happiness and peace of mind in this life.