Happiness | Surviving RDA

We live in a world in which being superficial isn’t only encouraged but rewarded. Many women measure their self-worth according to what’s in their closet and many men by whats in the garage. Societal conditioning has many of us noticing people for their cloth rather than their character, their cash rather than their kindness. Television, social media, and magazines leave many in constant instability. Focus on your family rather than public opinion, build true friendships rather than your page. There is much misery around so give a true smile, many may not return it but keep the spirit of a child.

635658-drowning-in-debt The unexpected, unnerving, and unwelcome are often very upsetting. The “Uns” as I call them are what I believe cause the stress we experience from day-to-day. Many people who I know would rather take the unnerving or unwelcome rather than the unexpected. There is something about the day not going as we plan. A feeling of helplessness often sets over us and we sometimes give in to feelings of defeat; we tell ourselves; “If this didn’t go as I wanted it to, as I needed it to, why should anything else.”

Most times from this point we resign ourselves to be miserable for the day so we won’t get slapped down again “when” something else doesn’t go our way for that day. This is of course a defense mechanism and one I used many times in the past convincing myself it was the better route to take and that I would be happier for it; sounds odd I know. My wife calls it, “waiting for the other proverbial shoe to drop”; I usually just call it Murphy letting us know he is alive and well.

The problem with this as that I often found myself bummed out as in life there are always surprises. Interestingly I realized after a while that a lot of the things in which my disappointment escalated to me being down actually turned out to be a great thing. It happened most often when I planned and prepared all I could but the expected result did not happen; some time later I end up in a better position then I was even trying to put myself in.

Another instance in which this would happen is working on a project, trying to reach a certain goal, but things just weren’t working out. I use to hopscotch around a lot thinking that if I am running into so much difficulty then this is the wrong project for me or I need to adjust my goals. I had come across a quote by Albert Einstein that stated, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result”. I don’t think I am insane but I could definitely admit I felt trapped; very reluctant come out of my comfort zone to try something new even though I was obviously already not comfortable.

I decided to try something different, I decided to stick it out on a project and when it got to the point in which I felt like this wasn’t my cup of tea I decided to just still stick with it. Interestingly enough this project is something I always loved to do but never really thought about sharing it with people, especially people I didn’t already know. I gave up on the project, one of my passions, once before and it made me feel like I lost a close friend. I picked the project up again and it is now survivingrda.wordpress.com; where you are now.

The great thing about this blog is that instead of the Uns tossing me back and forth along with my passions and goals they actually defeat themselves as they are now material for this blog which I hope helps as many people as possible as often as possible. Find a way to use the Uns in your life as a positive force for yourself and others. Recognize that life involves change, the change can not destroy you, only how you interpret and react to it can. There are many people through history that even cheat their Uns in death by inspiring others to live a more full life.