With Whom Are You Competing?

 We are often advised that we need to know our competition, if we are to succeed in almost anything. This may be true in some aspects of our lives.... business and athletics come to mind. But, even in these categories, the best success comes via personal improvement. As Dr. Wayne Dyer phrases this concept, "My goal is not to be better than anyone else, but to be better than I used to be!"

I used to run One Hour Photo centers for a major American retail company We had seven of our stores in Las Vegas. While I did know my "outside" competitors' operations, I was also aware of the abilities of the other six operators within our company. But, even more critical to the success of my operation was a commitment to personal growth within my specialty! It was not only important to be better than the "competition", but to be better today than I was yesterday. My customer base knew of my commitment and it showed in overall profits. 

I came across an interesting 

theory, known as GRATITUDE 

ADJUSTMENT which states.....

Gratitude is a great way to fertilize the brain, setting the stage for what we really want...and need!

Gratitude helps to create room for new stuff to take root, as it is an essential part of “building new neurological connections” and readies us for our dreams to be realized. (Gratitude also helps us be in the moment!).  “Learn to take pleasure in seeing other people get what they want. Even when you compete, be happy for those who win. Your feelings about a specific result don’t have to be a measure of how you feel about yourself. That person who won is also the person helping you become better. “ ~ (#ItsAllBSBook Ch. 11) 

You have an arch-rival…. I know you do!  Challenge: ~ Contact this person and congratulate this person on his/her most recent success.

.....Yes, this may require you to get over yourself! 

Four Levels of Happiness

I was recently reviewing various definitions of HAPPINESS when I encountered the following information 

Happiness Level 1:
The first and most basic level of happiness comes from things outside ourselves and involve one or more of the five senses. The pleasure they give is immediate and direct such as eating an ice cream cone, buying a brand new car, going on vacation. Their pleasure is short lived and intermittent. They must be replaced by yet another ice cream cone, or new car, or vacation. Until such replacements take place our happiness is on hold.

Happiness Level 2:
The second level of happiness involves the ego. (Ego is Latin for I) This kind of happiness comes whenever I am in control, the focus of attention, the object of admiration, whenever I see myself as superior to others. Hence, whenever I win, gain power, am admired, or gain popularity I feel happy and pleased with myself. My ego has been affirmed. That which I think is the most important thing in the world (me) has received approval.

Happiness Level 3:
The second level of happiness is not totally satisfying. There is something missing. Humans also desire love, truth, goodness/justice, beauty, and being. These desires are often expressed in acts of charity—seeking cures, being concerned with one’s neighbor, making sacrifices, forgiving personal injuries. We want to make the world a better place and so we offer our lives, time, energy, and talent for the welfare of others. Our happiness, we learn, cannot be separated from the happiness of others. The common good is an integral part of our personal happiness.

Happiness Level 4:
Even the third level of happiness does not exhaust the scope of human desire. Humans are pulled by their desire for the sublime, something beyond their imagination, beyond their complete understanding. To be sure, they desire love, goodness, truth, beauty, and being as they experience them in the world; but they also desire these in their perfected and unlimited form. Those of faith recognize this as their desire for God. For those having no faith, they can treat this as an awareness of a seemingly unconditional horizon surrounding human curiosity, creativity, spirit, and achievement.  

IN SUMMARY....

If we attempt to find answers to difficult life questions (like: "What am I living for?" / "Am I happy?" / "What's life all about?") in the first two levels of happiness, we will encounter disappointment leading to unhappiness.

Every person wishes to think of himself as “good.” The question is not whether one wants to be good, but how we interpret the "good.” When presented with the Four Levels of Happiness, most people naturally desire Happiness levels 3 and 4. Levels 3 and 4 also pave the way to virtue-based ethics, beginning with a sound definition of PERSONHOOD.

author Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D and the Center for Life Principles