A client recently told me that he was afraid to make a big life move because it could lead to him being miserable. He said this as if he had no choice in the matter. I realized that most of us feel this way. We are afraid to take risks because what if they don’t go the way we want them to and then we feel miserable. Yet this whole concept is truly a house of cards, because you always get to choose if you are miserable or not.

I asked my client, “What if you couldn’t be miserable?” And although he struggled at first with the concept he finally said, “Well then I can really try anything without too much fear.” And there it was. If you know that you can choose not to be miserable, then nothing in life is off limits. I’m not suggesting some, “make lemonade out of lemon” theory, but rather a choice that no matter what happens in life, I’ll choose my own happiness. 

What risks would you take, what changes would you make, if you knew you couldn’t be miserable? #happiness #risk #fear Click To Tweet

It’s a radical concept in a world that says that what happens to us makes us happy or not, versus the truth that we choose our own happiness. It’s also a scary concept, because it means we’ve run out of excuses for not taking big leaps in our lives. It means we don’t have to settle for mediocre and that we can’t really make a bad decision. 

Love,

Lisa Kaplin Psy. D. CPC

Lisa Kaplin Psy. D. PCC

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