Want More Joy in Your Life, Less Demands? How to Start |
Ask Chris how she feels about her life on a typical day, and she says she has nothing to complain about: Work is “OK,” and her relationship with her partner is “fine.” Ask her what she gets excited about, and she takes a deep breath and pauses for a long moment. I’m thinking, she says, after a few beats.
Chris is not clinically depressed, with everything in her life shaded in deep grays, and a "why bother?" attitude as her default. Instead, she views her life through the absence of the negative rather than the presence of the positive. She struggles to feel excitement because she rarely finds it.
Chris isn't alone. I’ve met them, you’ve met them, or maybe you are one of them: people who have long given up on excitement and joy and have come to accept a life of OK and fine. It’s about........