Who does not know them? The eternally happy, always in a good mood, super successful entrepreneurs?
It seems nowadays that whether in everyday life or even during a crisis, good humor and eternal happiness are considered the cornerstone of personal, professional and corporate success.
But let’s face it: our daily lives (especially right now) tend to consist of countless online meetings, working off projects, sleeping, eating, household chores, family, partnership and, at best, the closest of friends. The eternal happiness principle almost seems like a mockery, because sometimes a day is characterized by complete procrastination, because we have no motivation and energy to start the new day in a good mood.
For those of you who are now thinking to yourselves:
“Yeah, it’s really hard to motivate yourself sometimes. I don’t know how other people do it.”
For those, I have good news:
“We are all in the same boat, however, some have understood to listen to the wind and weather, while others paddle along grinning until they eventually run out of energy.”
Use part-time melancholy as a survival strategy
If you are no stranger to part-time melancholy, then you belong to the first group and that means: you have a chance to survive.
You don’t fight against your bad mood or try to boost your productivity every day to the utmost, but you have accepted that you need all emotions to grow, to develop and to be able to perceive moments of happiness at all.
I, too, believe in the principle of balancing emotions and want to share with you why it makes sense to indulge in some “part-time sadness” at times.
4 reasons why “negative” emotions get us ahead
- Sad thoughts lead to reflection. We compare the past, take stock of the current situation, and dream up the future. Only through this can we succeed in hitting the “reset button” and letting go of harmful habits, old vices or bad feelings and reinventing ourselves.
- Melancholy leads to daydreams and these stimulate creativity. Instead of giving in to a permanent state of misery, we can enhance our creativity by feeling sadness at times. We consciously look for ways to strip away this veil of melancholy. This leads to new ideas, innovative thoughts and a rekindled enthusiasm.
- We consciously distance ourselves from the so-called “fun society”. At the moment, it usually goes like this: We scroll down the timeline of our social media for what feels like half an eternity and at the end our result is: I have to change my apartment, my partnership, my job – preferably directly my whole life, because it’s not good enough. However, the feeling of sadness can be reduced here if we do a little “digital detox” and consciously write down what we are actually grateful for. The distance from the outer image thereby automatically leads to the approach to the inner image, which significantly improves the satisfaction with oneself and one’s own being.
- Negative feelings can act as a kind of driving force. They show us bad things, but also lead to inner resistance. Thus, it may be that it is only through sadness that we become aware of how wonderful our own life is, and through this we adopt a stronger attitude towards external influences and strengthen our resilience. I show you a great way to do this in my article, “Create your own I don’t give a fuck – Hall of Fame.”
Happiness and sadness in coaching
In the coaching process, we not only discuss the “obvious” drivers in life, but also consciously address “bad” feelings in order to re-evaluate them in the context of reframing (a kind of change of perspective) and to use them as a source of strength and confidence for ourselves.
“We perceive the beauty of light only because there are shadows. It’s the same with happiness, which only gets its value from knowing what dejection feels like.”
Celebrate your own anniversary with the “Retirement Vision” coaching tool
So, when you are “beamed” by the happiness of others again soon, give yourself a smile and start dreaming gloriously from the current feeling of sadness.
Should you wish to have support for this, just imagine that I would sit down next to you on the floor or on the cushion like a good friend, smile at you and ask you about a wonderful moment in the future.
You want to get right into this thought, then you are welcome to listen to Vision Retirement for free – Tell me about your personal anniversary celebration.
