Archives For happiness

HECTOR’S SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS: PART 4

Today is the last day in the series that I’ve been writing called Hector’s Search for Happiness.  I hope you guys have enjoyed it and that somewhere in this stuff you’ve found something to take to heart and chew on.  My ultimate goal in this and in anything that I write is to encourage and build you up.  My life isn’t awesome everyday by any means and I have my share of daily struggles, but just like anyone else I want to be happy and I want my life to matter.  Your life matters and I believe that every person on this earth has a purpose.  Figuring out that purpose should be your daily mission and in doing so I feel that you will learn a lot about yourself, which brings me to my first list for today which is Loving Yourself.

HAPPINESS IS LOVING YOURSELF

I’ve traced my life back as far as I can remember and I don’t think that I ever really struggled with self esteem issues.  I don’t feel like I’m a great looking person and I do have about 10 – 15 lbs to lose around my waist line, but my confidence doesn’t come from how I look, it’s just the way that I’m wired.  For some, self confidence will come naturally while for others it has to be taught and developed.

If there was one ultimate source for happiness I feel that it will come from how you feel about yourself.  This can come from how you view yourself physically to how you feel about your purpose in the world.  This morning the comedian Amy Schumer was on the Today show and she talked about how walking in self confidence has not always been easy but that she has found her stride and she is doing what she can to encourage others.  In Amy’s words she’s not a “skinny” person and in one of her comedy bits she describes what goes on under her clothes as a lava lamp, where everything just moves around all lazy and slow, waiting to be released with the unzipping of the back of her dress.  It’s great that she can make fun of herself through her comedy and she does a great job of using humor to lift people up.

If we can learn anything from Amy it’s that size doesn’t matter and it’s all about what’s in your heart.  Who you are as a person is more about what’s going on in the inside that what the world sees on the outside.  I have encountered some very shallow people in my life who are beautiful people physically, but unfortunately lack substance and heart.  While on the other end I know people who some may say are overweight and not that physically attractive yet they have hearts of gold and are making a difference in the world.  Those are the people that I want to know and those are the kinds of people that we can learn from.

Focus on finding your place in this world and surround yourself with “beautiful” people with “beautiful” hearts.  Build one another up daily and in doing this it will undoubtedly help you with your own self confidence.  Also, don’t fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others on social media, which can be one of the biggest confidence killers.  Know that everything that we see online is not the real world and your friend’s photos of how awesome their life is and how happy they are on vacation or at the beach is not the whole story.  If you’re not careful you’ll find yourself comparing your life to others and beating yourself up because you can’t post amazing before and after fitness photos from your bathroom.

HAPPINESS IS RIDING MY BIKE

When I was 12yrs old and we moved to Spring Branch into some huge new apartment complex called Afton Village.  I give the apartment name because I would love to hear from anyone who lived there as well back in the day.  That place was seriously it’s own little city and I have some great memories from that one year of living there.  One of my fondest memories was seeing BMX freestyle in person for the first time in my life.  I remember walking through the complex and being stopped in my tracks as I saw someone playing around on their bike about 100 yards away.  I was mesmerized by what I was seeing and it changed my life forever.  Not long after seeing this my mom bought me my first BMX bike and I rode the hell out of that thing.  I slowly began trying to do whatever tricks I saw that guy do at Afton and by ninth grade I become one of about 20 other BMX flatland riders in Houston.

I can truly say that my bike changed my life.  I loved riding and it was my passion throughout high school and I feel that it kept me out of a lot of trouble.  Me and my friends spent hours and many late nights on the weekend riding in parking lots and learning new tricks.  I remember coming home from school, not being able to wait to get on my bike and hit the park tennis courts to master that one trick that I had been trying to learn for the past 2 – 3 months.  I had found a passion and something I truly loved and it made me happy.

There were several years in the 90s where I abandoned my BMX bike and got into mountain biking and even had a short stint as an aggressive inline skater.  LOL, yes, I skated and I would have to say that I became very good at it, buut by 1998 I caught the BMX bug again and picked up where I left off in 1990.  Since then I haven’t slowed down and riding my bike and being involved in the cycling community is a passion of mine that makes me happy.  I’m sure I’ll be riding around this weekend so keep an eye out for me and don’t run me over.

Friends, love yourself, love others, find your passion and run with it, do what you love and do whatever it takes to be where you’re supposed to be, don’t settle for anything less than what brings true happiness and change the world around you.  And if you don’t own a dog or a bike, get your ass out there this weekend I find both.  That will be your homework for the weekend.  Trust me, you’ll be a very happy person by Monday.

Happy weekend.

@hectorgarciahtx

 

 

 

 

Posted on October 16, 2015 In Blog, Life, Personal Growth, Religion, Resources , , , , , ,
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HECTOR’S SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS

You’d have to read yesterday’s blog post to understand what my plans are for MakeAShift this week.  It all stems from my love for a movie I watched a few weeks ago called Hector and the Search for Happiness, a very inspiring and powerful movie, at least for me it was.  My name is Hector of course and what better topic to cover this week than that of Happiness.

Unlike the character Hector in the movie, I haven’t taken a journey around the world that provided me with some crazy life changing revelations or anything like that, but I have had my share of challenges, some recent and some not so recent.  As a 43 year old man who has lived as full a life as possible, I can say that I’ve been through enough to be able to write on the topic of happiness and I hope that my insight can help you find yours today.  My list isn’t in any particular order so know that it’s all coming out as I write.  Enjoy.

HAPPINESS IS DOING WHAT YOU LOVE

I’m a fairly happy person most of the time and it’s very rare that I wake up grumpy or upset.  I’m usually ready to go and look forward to that first morning cup of coffee.  I work for myself and for the most part I’ve been doing so since college.  I of course have had some full time jobs over the years, but the longest I ever worked for someone else was for about 5 years in the 90s.  Some might say that being my own boss is the reason I can wake up and be happy, but no, this is my disposition for the most part.

Trust me, working for yourself isn’t always easy and there can be many reasons to want to quit, but I love it.  I’m not rich by any means and being my own boss is great but that’s not the part that I love the most.  I could be my own boss doing anything, but I don’t think I’d be happy running my own landscaping business or owning a kiosk at the mall, not because those aren’t great, but because they’re not my passion.  If you’re going to be your own boss then do so by doing something that you actually love and enjoy.  I own an ad agency and I get to create and design every day.  Sometimes the work and clients are great and sometimes it’s challenging, but in the end I’m doing what I love and enjoy.

By working for myself I’ve also been able to turn other passions into businesses with two of those being a love for cycling / bikes and dogs.  Two very successful festivals have come from this and 2015 marks 4 years for each fest.  This November 7th will be the 4th Annual HTX Bike Fest and this past Spring the Puppies for Breakfast Dog Festival was the largest yet.

If you have a passion for something, whether it makes you a lot of money or not, jump in and do it.  You don’t have to get up and quit your current job today or tomorrow to make it happen, just take baby steps and start doing something that you love that will increase your happiness everyday and make waking up all the more better.

HAPPINESS IS COFFEE

I love coffee but I’m not what you call a “real” coffee drinker.  I stick to the basics, just give me a good cup of standard brewed coffee and let me add some cream and sugar and I’m happy.  My ritual every morning is to heat up some water and then poor all of that hot water goodness over a one cup pour over system that is usually filled with some Dunkin Donut brand coffee grounds.  I’ll usually just sit out on the porch for a little while and sip on that cup or I’ll do what I am doing this morning and I’ll write or work.  I usually only make it to cup #3 before I realize that I have the shakes and then it’s time to stop.  I’m sure there’s an addiction by now, but it’s ok, I’m happy.

HAPPINESS IS FORGIVING

Remember, I said that this list would come in no particular order, which is why i can jump from loving coffee to now talking about something deeper such as forgiveness.  Working for yourself is great and can be awesome, especially if you do it each day with a cup of coffee in one hand and a donut in the other, but if you’re walking around with unforgiveness towards someone you might as well quit and go work for someone else.

If there was ever anything that could affect a person’s happiness it’s the decision to carry around unforgiveness.  We’ve all been hurt by someone at some point in our lives and I’ve seen first hand how destructive unforgiveness can be to a person.  It can be a huge weight and there are some people that will carry this weight for years and never deal with it.  Forgiving comes easy for some but can be very difficult to do for others.  I’m wired to forgive fairly easy and quickly, to a fault, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.  I would hate to be walking around with the burden of that huge weight, stunting my growth and disabling me from moving forward.  Forgiving someone can be so freeing and life changing.  If you’re carrying around one of these weights, please, let it go today.  Lay it down, give it to God or allow friends or family to help you remove it and take it off.

I found this image online of the donkey that is suspended in the air, still attached to an overloaded cart that he was pulling.  It’s hilarious, but the only way to safely get that donkey back down on the ground is to begin removing some of the weight from the cart.  Only then can his legs touch the ground again and he can be detached from the cart.  I’m sure that donkey was scared as hell being suspended in the air like that, and he was probably the happiest donkey in the world when they brought him back down.

Take the weight off of your cart.  Lighten your load and in doing so watch how much room you can make for happiness.

Until tomorrow, enjoy your 3rd or 4th cup of coffee and get back to work.  Thanks for reading.

@hectorgarciahtx

 

Posted on October 14, 2015 In Blog, Life, Personal Growth, Resources , , , , , , , ,
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HECTOR’S SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS

A few weeks ago while scrolling through Netflix and chillin (alone by the way), I came across a movie that I had been wanting to see for a while but forgot about it.  I was so happy to see that it was available and couldn’t wait to see it.  With my bowl of “world famous” spaghetti in hand, a nice cold beer sitting on the nightstand and my dog Mr. Wesley laying next to me, I watched what has become one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while, “Hector and the Search for Happiness”. 

Featuring actor Simon Pegg (as Hector) and actress Rosamund Pike (his girlfriend), the movie follows Hector, a psychiatrist who realizes how unhappy he is with his life and decides to go on a journey to find out what makes people happy.  He travels to several different locations around the world facing many challenges and almost death and unbeknownst to Hector, his journey would completely change his life and ultimately help Hector find happiness for himself.  The movie comes to a beautiful climax of self realization for Hector and a very emotional phone call with his girlfriend Clara, who he finds to miss and love very much.

That last phone call with Clara is very powerful and enlightening for Hector.  By this point in the movie he comes to realize how much he loves her and wants her in his life and as the voice over the movie states, Hector “learns to love like never before”.  Because I’m a soft heartened little boy, I’m tearing up by this point in the movie and yes, it leaves me wanting to see the movie again later in the week.   And yes, one more time a few days later.  I purchased the book some time after this, but have had a hard time getting into it, mainly because for me, the movie was way too awesome.

We all want to be happy and many people spend their entire lives trying to find happiness.  Some try to do this through their job, others attempt to find happiness in relationships or friendships, while others search for it through spiritual things.  Regardless of how, the fact is that we all want to be happy and whether we like it or not, we’re searching for it daily and we will continue to until the day we die.  Whether it’s through that first cup of coffee in the morning or through a cozy cuddle session and Netflix with your significant other, happiness is all around us, waiting to be found.

Over the next few days I will provide a list of what I have found to make me happy, something similar to what Hector provides in this movie.  One of Hector’s quotes in the movie is “Many people only see happiness in their future” and as true as this statement is, it’s very sad that many people actually feel this way.  My goal will be to help each person who read’s my series come to find that “happiness” is there for you today, not tomorrow or a year from now.  Happiness is all around us, we just need to put on the right glasses to see it.  I’ll help you clean your classes tomorrow though, because right now I’m going to make myself happy and eat a late lunch.

Have a good day.  See your happy asses tomorrow.

@hectorgarciahtx

Posted on October 13, 2015 In Blog, Life, Personal Growth , , , , , ,
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