People who live contented lives seem to have something in common- they've discovered the intangible "one thing" for them that will bring everlasting happiness and fulfillment.
Many people spend their lifetime searching to find exactly what that "one thing" is for them. Sadly, some never find it.
In the movie City Slickers, Jack Palance as the old cowboy shares his wisdom in life with Billy Crystal, and tells him to find the one thing that will bring happiness to his life. He elaborates by sharing that the one thing is different for each of us, but until Billy finds what that one thing is for him, happiness will be difficult for him to find.
In real life when adversity or challenges appear, many of us do what Billy did and head to the hills looking for our one thing. We hope that when we find it, that one thing will guide us to the happiness that's been so elusive.
Believing that the "one thing" will help us create happiness, achieve our goals, and feel like a winner in life, we think of happiness as a destination. "If I could just get to that place, and stay there, I'd be happy." We think, "If I could just have that, or achieve that, or be that, THEN I could be happy forever after." Unfortunately that's not how life works.
Life is not a situation where you put up your feet and count up all your points and money and judge whether or not you won. Winning at the game of life isn't about what you accumulate, or how well you avoid suffering. It's about truly savoring your life each day, every day, instead of always focusing on tomorrow and what you don't have.
Today's Inspirational Luminary, Peggy McColl has always been a seeker, always looking for the secret to living a life of purpose, meaning, and success. She shares her lessons with us in her new book aptly named, The Won Thing.
As Peggy explains,
"Each of us has to decide on our own personal formula for success. This formula will naturally change as our priorities change and we enter new phases and stages of life. Our own 'one thing' will serve as a road map for figuring out what matters most to us, right now, and how to achieve a sense of balance so that we're not feeling that life is a never-ending struggle.
What gets you excited, what makes you bound out of bed in the morning, or what's the key to your success in life? You'll hear many different answers. That's where it gets confusing. You start thinking that someone else has the 'one thing', the one answer for you...but that's never the case. Your 'one thing' is personalized.
The Won Thing isn't some final destination. The Won Thing is something that informs you and guides you as you go through life and inevitably, face some challenges and disappointments. But one of the ways in which you discover the Won Thing is to change your beliefs about happiness as an end goal. Happiness is a way of living, a powerful force that allows you to work with the Universe to co-create more happiness, and more situations that make it easy to be happy."
Finding our one thing isn't a guarantee to success, but it will act as a road map to help us to maintain our course when adversity appears in our life. Knowing what that one thing is and staying true to it, helps us understand that adversity doesn't define who we are. We do have a choice in how to react to any situation.
By keeping that one thing in the forefront of our minds, we're using our own internal GPS system to maintain a course that we've consciously chosen rather than haphazardly picking a random path out of frustration or desperation. Without knowing what that one thing is, we may take one wrong turn after another and lose our way.
As you gently reflect on your life and your choices, think about your own one thing. What makes you feel successful and fulfilled? What makes your heart soar? What feels light and more like play than work? Listen to your heart and it will lead you to your own one thing. Your own personal "one thing" can then act as your guide on your path to a life of happiness, contentment and fulfillment. And it all start with "one thing"- yours.