Happiness is: Appreciating Your People While You Have Them

All too often I hear stories about people who have lost someone dear to them, only to realize they should’ve appreciated them more while they had them around.

It’s easy to hear stories like this and to appreciate your loved ones more for a little while, but sooner or later find yourself falling back into old patterns of behavior where we take the ones we love for granted.

But what if we chose to live that way most of the time?

What if we made it a conscious decision every day to let the little things go, to stop picking stupid arguments, to stop needing to be right and instead focused more on appreciating our people while we have them?

What would the quality of your life and the quality of your relationships be like then?

Relationships are such a huge part of life. They are foundational and critical to our wellbeing as human beings.

As such a big part of our lives, relationships can either be a major source of happiness…or misery.

And while we can’t control what others do or say, we can control how we show up and what we prioritize within the context of that relationship.

You see, happiness isn’t about having perfect relationships.

It’s not about having the perfect marriage or friendship or relationship with your family where nothing goes wrong and there are never any arguments or disagreements. And it’s certainly not about tolerating abuse or toxic dynamics (those aren’t the kinds of relationships I’m talking about here).

It’s about showing up in our relationships with love, grace, forgiveness, and appreciation more often than not.

It’s about treating those closest to you with the most respect, instead of taking them for granted and focusing on their limitations.

When we stop focusing on all the things we wish our partners, parents, children, and friends would do differently and instead focus on their positive qualities, life just becomes so much better.

How we show up in our relationships, how we value time spent with those we care about, and how much we cherish those we love has a huge effect on our satisfaction in life.

Happiness is choosing to let your love for someone outweigh all the other things.

It’s appreciating each moment you have with those you love most, because you never know when it’ll be your last.