With a new crypto winter around the corner, it can be a good time for reflection. I have learn't a very valuable lesson over the last ten years. A simple lesson but I feel compelled to share.
The lesson is simple, I don't connect my happiness to anything outside of myself. As an example, when crypto is going up, everyone gets happy. When it goes down - for some - the opposite happens. This can be true of many aspects in our lives including our relationships with objects, and people.
I used to be caught up in these turbulent waters between happiness and depression. I wanted things I couldn't have, and that caused unhappiness. On the other end I would buy a new object whether it be a new car, guitar or just a new pair of jeans. And for a short while I would feel 'happier', but of course that would wear off and once again life would be on a downer.
This is acutely true in the crypto space I have noticed. People getting really down as the price goes down and then totally high when it goes up. Over the last few years I have learned and gained knowledge through reading and experiencing to be much more present, and to see clearly that nothing outside of yourself can bring happiness. And if you attach your happiness to outcomes, and those outcomes don't come to fruition, then you are heading for more unhappiness. And even when those things do come to fruition, after a short while it wears off. It's just the way we have been conditioned.
Once you detach yourself from outcomes it becomes obvious this is the case, but when you are not, it will appear as someone maybe telling you how to live. For me it has changed my whole out look on life. I now live a very simple life in a rented house, with enough to live on. I have invested over the last 4 years in the crypto space. I have done ok, though never taken any profit. If it goes up, it does, if not then not. I don't care about the money - I was always in for the change and I know money does not change how I feel inside. If I get a bill I can't pay, then sure I shall sell some and pay the bill.
I used to run my own company which could have been said to be successful, but all I ever did was work. I never made enough money to be enough money. ( Billionaires never seem to have enough billions, funny that! ) My relationship suffered and of course my happiness was attached to that as well. I even bought my own home, albeit on a mortgage, thinking that would bring me what I was looking for. But I was never more miserable than back then.
My point is that now, no matter what happens, my happiness is not attached to the outcome of anything or anyone. This is now true in all areas of my life. Happiness does not come from outside, it comes from inside. And happiness grants you the key to open a wonderful door, which is the door to acceptance. Acceptance of the good times and the bad times. Acceptance of the things that come, and the things that go.
At the end of this journey, it won't matter what you did or said; how much money you made or didn't make. It will come down to acceptance of the fact that everything has to be given up in the end. Everything goes back in the box. So I live like that all the time now. I don't cling onto anything, or anyone, I don't want things to be different, everything is as it is and that is enough.
And living this way means I am no longer a boat on the ocean being tossed about. I am now the ocean. Just thought I would offer this up as we head into another crypto winter. Nothing new for sure, but a message so easily forgotten in a world that is obsessed with the idea of more. And the idea that 'more' will bring happiness.
Be the ocean not the boat.
