The intervals of happiness are the times in our lives we can look back to and know when we were happy. These happy times are not meant to keep us living in the past but rather help us realize how amazing and full of happiness our life has been filled with. I find that people frequently get into ruts and curse their whole life because of one moment. Life is not made of one moment! It is an accumulation of moments that make up the bigger picture. Those intervals between the good moments help create a better appreciation for the life we have. In this week’s blog, I will write about the intervals of happiness in life and how to use them.

How often do you look at the past and smile at good memories? When you remember being in grade school or high school. You may be smiling about the friends and experiences you shared with them, thinking that those were the good days. However, if you fail to see your life right now as being better than your former years,” then there may be a problem with your path. The intervals of happiness are the blocks of time we live in. It is easy to separate school into focus categories, but it can vary in adult life. Similar to how we can label times in our life when we were most happy/sad. Intervals of happiness are the peaks of the good moments that we take for granted more often than not.

When you are young, you have a plethora of experiences that happen close to each other. When you are in school, you have different phases geared toward looking at the future. There is elementary school, middle school, high school, and then maybe college. In those stages of your academic growth years, it can be easy only to see the future and adulthood on the other side. Now that we are adults, what is the thing we look forward to now? Perhaps it is parenthood, retirement, or death. Life moved quickly when we were young, but now we are in the marathon section of our life.

If I asked you to look back at a time in any of your younger years, would the times you look back be good or bad memories? Now some people may still be traumatized by high school, and rightfully so. However, when people look back at their past, they see one of two things. They see the good moments or the turning points that they would change if they could. Both points share something in common: the memory is still in an interval of happiness phase. The first example is when the interval was at its peak, and the second example is when the interval was about to end. These examples help create and identify that your life was a series of ups and downs that are not noticed until the memory stage.

The memory stage is when you are far enough out of an interval to where reminiscing can take place. Those moments generally give you the understanding that life has the ability to be good or that you can overcome failure/challenges. What happens is that you can start to feel whole again. The premise of feeling whole again is similar to taking the good with the bad and how being unfinished/incomplete helps you appreciate when you are complete/whole. Feeling whole is the same as feeling alive and happy. Things are going your way, and everything feels right. You might have some minor complaints, but you can come to realize that your life is going well overall.

If I asked you to apply that type of thinking from your schooling days and focus on what comes, what do you think would happen? Would you start to visualize and fantasize about all of the beautiful things that can be made possible in your life? The purpose of this is to help people realize that they are not happy with where they are. The beautiful part is that if someone is not happy where they are, they can change it. Just as you have shown growth in your school time years, you have the same capability in your adult years. You can make wonderful things happen if you have your mind in order.

Now that you are in the workforce, you may find it more difficult to find happiness. You might be working in a job as a means to the end and giving your time and life away so that you can live an easy and fulfilled life one day. Perhaps you have some kids, and they bring you joy, but something is missing. Simply put, the fear of missing out starts to settle in once your life becomes the typical American dream. To have a house and kids and work a 9-5 job. However, that dream doesn’t make people happy for long. They realize that even in their later year, their dreams and desires were the motivation for progress, but when looking at their lives, they’re faced with a list of things not yet done.

Even if the fear of death weighs in on your mind, you are faced with realizing where your life went. Where are those moments that you have taken for granted? The thought, “If you could do it over again, how you would live differently?” starts to sound off in your head. This is because we seek to be happy. Happy in what we do and the life we live. Whether that is shared or spent alone is your determination because the intervals of happiness in your life will be your own story. Those intervals help define your true self and what would bring you the most pleasure in life. I find that many people forget the small moments that make them the happiest.

In short, the intervals of happiness can help you identify times in your life when things were good. I know in our current society, 2019 was a year that many people think about often. It was the time when things were “normal.” With all the lockdowns and mandates now, many people are not happy where their lives are. Most people are just waiting for life to get back to normal, but in the meantime, they are doing what they can, even if it means putting their life on hold. Regardless of their choices/actions, this period in our life may not be the best, but it is our moment to make it great.

I want you to understand that even if life is not going how you would like for it to go, you have the power to change it. Similar to how you can see back in the past how your low moments were overcome and passed. You have that same capability for each new moment in your life. This time I want you to be aware of where you are in the next interval of happiness. If you can do that, you will start to see and feel happiness more consistently. There will no longer be a need for an outside stimulus to make you happy because you can recreate joy at any interval you want. Understanding the interval of happiness can help change your perspective and mindset into becoming more positive and focused on the good life has for you.

Until then,

Michael Rearden

Founder of Reven LLC.