Do you want to be Joyful?quit these bad habits

Sometimes we’re unhappy, but we don’t know exactly why.

Even if our lives seem to be happy and successful on the outside, we may not feel that way deep inside.

If you feel that way, it’s likely that there are some things you should stop doing that are stealing your joy.

Here are several of them:

1. Worrying about the Future

(Matthew 6:25-34)

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

2.Agonizing over The Past

What’s happened in the past should be left to the past. There’s no use in trying to fix it, or to rewrite it to make it seem less unfortunate than it was. The only benefit that can come out of negative past experiences should be found in learning from them.

Your life is what you live today, and the direction you hope to take in the future.

3.Fretting over the World Condition

Thanks in large part to the power of the media, fretting over the world condition is practically a social requirement. In fact, you may be considered irresponsible or uncaring if you aren’t worried about what’s happening in the world.But the reality is that you can’t fix the whole world. All you can do is to do your best to manage your little corner of it. Do your best in the space you occupy, and let go of the notion that either you – or anyone else – can fix the world condition.

4.Procrastinating

This may be the single worst human habit. When you procrastinate, you put off taking actions that could make your life better. You also allow problems to fester and grow. And if you’re like me, the feelings of guilt begin to creep in when you know there’s something you need to take care of but don’t.Good feelings flow from accomplishment. That can’t happen if you procrastinate. All that will do is weigh you down with the negative feelings that come from not doing what you know you need to do.

5.Worrying about Your Health

When it comes to health, there’s plenty to worry about – if that’s what you choose to do. But if you are in good health, and merely worried about the possibilities, try doing these two things instead:

1.Celebrate the good health that you enjoy, and

2.Actively work to preserve and even improve it.

Worrying about your health only leads to stress, and that will degrade it. Instead, resolve to start living better, to eat more nutritious food and lay off the junk, to get regular exercise, and get immediate medical attention if you think something really is wrong.Beyond that, enjoy your life and don’t worry about your health.

6.Watching Too Much TV

If it’s one thing TV is really good at, its making us feel bad about ourselves. It’s not an accident either. The primary purpose of TV is to sell us something. One of the best ways to do that is by making us unsatisfied with who we are and with what we now have.Spend enough time watching TV, and you’ll come to doubt yourself, your life, and everything that you have. TV is a form of indoctrination – negative indoctrination. For that reason, you can’t spend too much time watching it.

7.Trying to Fix People

Trying to fix people is an exercise in frustration. People don’t always feel they need to be fixed, and in fact they may not need to. And even if they do, they’ll probably resist change enforced by someone else with every fiber of their being.You can spend a lot of good time and energy trying to fix someone and make no progress at all. If you’re that worried about them, then pray for them. And then focus your attention on fixing the person in the mirror (see Matthew 7:3-5).

8.Worrying about Appearances

If you are too concerned with how things look – your home, your car, your appearance, or even how people will perceive how you make a living – you can live a joyless life.The problem is that somebody else always has something that looks better than what you have. Concentrate on what makes you happy, rather than on how things may appear to other people. They almost certainly care less about how things look in your life that you do, so you’re worrying about nothing.

9. Comparing Yourself with Others

This is a tough one because we all have different skills and abilities. If you are in the sales department at your company, and you always compare yourself with the top salesperson, you’re always going to come up short, and that will leave you doubting yourself.Instead of comparing yourself with others, work on becoming better than what you’ve been in the past. Small, incremental changes made in your life over a long period of time could make a huge positive difference. That needs to be your focus, not comparing yourself with others.

10. Ruminating Over Your Troubles

Nothing can steal your joy faster or better than ruminating over your troubles. When you ruminate, it’s usually over something unfortunate that’s happened in the past, or out of fear of an uncertain future outcome.While you’re busy agonizing over the details of the past event or projecting one for the future, you trap yourself in a state of emotional paralysis. That’s a poor launching pad to deal with any type of uncertainty.Concentrate on doing the best you can at improving reasonably expected outcomes, then trust that it will all work out one way or another. Events seldom turn out as bad as we think they will, if only because human imagination is virtually unlimited. You always have to be open to the possibility that unknown positives will appear in your situation that will prevent the worst from happening. Prayer is a good way to bring that about.

11. Holding on to someone who hurts you.

Sometimes you have to walk away from people, not because you don’t care, but because they don’t.  When someone hurts you time and time again, accept the fact that they don’t care about you.  It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s necessary medicine.  Do NOT strive to impress them any further.  Waste not another second of your time trying to prove something to them.  Nothing needs to be proven.  Do not act with any thought of them ever again

12.Believing You Need To Achieve Perfection

Perfect people only exist on TV – which is another excellent reason that you shouldn’t spend too much time watching it. You’re a human being, with human flaws and weaknesses. That doesn’t make you a failure or unlovable – it just makes you more like everyone else.Recognize that no one is perfect, and that you’ll never be perfect, and that’s perfectly okay. In the end, life really isn’t about achieving perfection, but rather about achieving happiness as an imperfect person living an imperfect life in an imperfect world.

Free yourself from these attitudes and behaviors, and see if you aren’t suddenly living a more joyful life.

Reference: christianpf.com