14 Ways to Learn the Secret to Happiness
13th Way: Play to Your Strengths
One way to achieve flow (the topic of Saturday’s post, below) is by understanding and identi
fying our strengths and core values, and then begin to use these every day. Once we aware of our strengths, we can better incorporate them in all aspects of our lives.
We are all different. My brain is not wired like yours of any one else’s brain. Just like we have our own unique DNA structure, we also have our own distinctive strengths. Realizing our strengths and then playing to these strengths can be a great source of comfort, self-confidence and happiness.
The following story illustrates this principle:
A lion cub was once left alone and grew not among lions but with a flock of sheep who fostered him. He grew as the sheep did, eating grass and living in fear of most predators. One day a lion came out of the forest and found the flock of sheep, and saw the lion cowering in a corner, shaking for fear. The forest lion came over to the sheep lion and inquired of him, “what are you doing…cowering and shaking in fear?” The sheep lion replied he was afraid the forest lion would eat him. The forest lion grabbed the sheep lion by the neck and dragged him to a nearby poor of water. He forced the sheep lion to gaze into the reflection from the pool. “What do you see?” inquired the forest lion. “I see two lions here”. “Yes”, the forest lion said, “you are a lion like me.” Understanding who and what he was, he became a lion, at once stopped being a sheep. He realized his true nature and natural strength.
Discover Your True Nature
You do not need to use tricks and develop psychological methods of feeling better about youself. You have your own true nature, and this nature, whatever it is, is what you are. You will have certain talents (all of us do), with natural abilities. These are easy to recognize, as it is the things you understand and do easily. All of these talents and abilities are on a sliding scale. For example, if you are good with numbers, you may be especially talented in mathematics. You might be an accountant or bookkeeper on one side of the scale, and a quantum physicist at the other. That is up to you. Your self-confidence comes from simply knowing yourself.
Why should you feel bad about yourself if you are not good at sports. You will excel somewhere else. Begin to understand and accept who and what you are. This leads not only to self-confidence, but happiness. Aspire to the best of who and what you are, and this leads to greatness.
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