Delayed happiness: When you don't allow yourself to be happy
Author, Stella Riunga Rop.
What you need to know:
- Some people have decided that happiness is not even worth considering until their net worth grows to a certain amount.
As I write this, one of my neighbours is having a very long, emotional phone conversation with a relative in Turkmenistan. How did I know that? Simple.
I calculated the decibel level of the conversation and then used my powers of deduction to arrive at the conclusion that a) the country that the person on the other end of line is in cannot be on the African continent and b) wherever they are, the official language cannot be English because this entire (private) conversation is being conducted in English.
I have been thinking about a post that a friend shared recently about ‘delayed happinesss’. This is a situation where you do not allow yourself to be happy and relaxed until or unless you get to a certain goal.
For example, some of us have vowed never to buy new clothes until they reach the magical weight of however many kg or whatever dress size. I’m sure this works for some people, but what if you are one of those people who will never lose a dramatic amount of weight? Oh well, I guess you will just have to spend the rest of your life moving around in rags!
Some people have decided that happiness is not even worth considering until their net worth grows to a certain amount.
As someone whose net worth is currently hovering below-zero range, I guess I should be walking around looking like Ebenezer Scrooge himself, but here I am, happy, smiling and trusting God that tomorrow might bring better tidings. No need to delay my happiness!
And then there are those who are waiting for the state of the country to improve before they can stop rationing happiness in their lives. You can easily spot them in any crowd by their favourite lines: “In this economy…” or “In this cow-ntry”, followed by a resigned shaking of the head. My friend, if you are living in Africa, with power rationing, resource rationing, rationing of sense by leaders, rationing of choice, rationing of rations…then you will wait forever. Stop delaying your happiness and choose to enjoy the gift of today. Happy new month!
