Is Happiness Hanging In Your Closet?

Did you know that happiness can be marketed?  It’s true – “Buy X and you’ll be happy”  “Learn do to Y and you’ll be happy” (https://markmanson.net/stop-trying-to-be-happy)

But the old saying is true – you can’t buy happiness.  Isn’t it funny how we tell ourselves that over and over but that doesn’t stop us from trying to buy happiness?  Want a really good example of that?  Go look at your closet.

Just look at all that potential happiness hanging there and piled on the floor.

Hey, I’m guilty of it too.  Like I stated when I started this blog, I shop when I’m upset, angry, stressed, etc.  I purchase a new top to make myself feel better, to make myself…happy.

Perhaps happiness is like Christmas and the Grinch was right when he said, “Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.” 

I know it seems really easy for me to tell you to not buy clothes to find happiness.  You’re probably thinking, “Ok, so I stop buying clothes.  Where do I find happiness then?”

That’s the million dollar question right there. 

I’ve been listening to a really good podcast by The Minimalists and they said something this week that dealt with that very question. 

“Don’t base your life on the average person, because the average person is not happy.  And just because most people are unhappy doesn’t mean you have to be unhappy too.  You needn’t settle for a mediocre life just because the people around you did.  Of course happiness is not the point – a meaningful life is. 

So maybe you should stop looking for happiness and start looking for meaning.” 

I don’t know about you but I like the thought that happiness can’t be “found”, that it’s something you just “are” when you find meaning in your life.

Think of it like this – an angry man doesn’t wonder if he’s angry and a confident man doesn’t wonder if he’s confident.  They just are those things.  A happy person is the same way.  If you’re a happy person, then you just…are.

Ok, we don’t look for happiness we look for meaning.  Check.  Got it.  Hmmm….meaning???  How do you find that?

I’m not an expert on finding the meaning of life (no surprise there).  But I am pretty good at keeping things simple, and in my own opinion I think you find your “meaning” by first identifying the things in your life that bring no meaning to it.

We’re all so busy and our days are packed with work, appointments, commitments, tv, shopping, etc.  How nice would it be if we started cutting out the things that bring no meaning to our lives?  We’d have more time to spend on the MEANINGFUL things.

So what un-meaningful things fill your day…and your closet?

That’s what I’ve been trying to do these last few months, identifying the meaningful and sorting out the un-meaningful.  It’s why I stopped buying clothes and started this blog.  I looked around my life and realized that my closet brought no meaning to my life.

Is re-wearing all my clothes for a year the meaning to my life and the key to my happiness? 

Of course not. 
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But it’s a step in the right direction and I’m defiantly happier moving forward then I ever was standing still.