Self Awareness is key to happiness.

I wrote this post yesterday about drama queens, I was really digging it when I was writing it and when I first posted it, I thought it was pretty good! Then the comments started coming and they were all supportive of what I was saying but it kinda pisses me off when the comments are worded so much better than my post. :)

Anonymous wrote a great post with this line in it:

"Teaching your children to judge others less and to take a harder look at themselves is a good spot to prevent DQ disease." (DQ = Drama Queen)

I fricking love that line. 

In my family we call it self-awareness. Not only is it about recognizing your flaws, maybe more importantly... It's about truly discovering what makes you happy. 

photo courtesy of Agendalove.com

I think little bity folks like the one in the pic above are the most self aware people in the world. 

They know exactly what actually makes them happy. They don't have time to judge folks around them because they are too busy looking for shit that is important to them to do. They can use their young minds and creatively entertain themselves for hours with a box or a rock. They don't ever have any intentions of beating anyone at anything... they are just motivated by being genuinely happy. 

As that little dude grows up society will falsely convince him that judging others, wanting to be a celebrity and obsessing over their lives, needing a bigger faster SUV, and degrading people of different beliefs, skin color, bank account size or occupation is what will make him happy. He wont actually be happy at all as he pursues and takes part in those things, then he will start to get old, realize he isn't really happy, and make a mad dash to be happy before his last breath. 

I was lucky and at a young age realized the importance of self-awareness. It doesn't mean I haven't screwed a lot of shit up in my life. The odds are I have screwed more things up than about 99% of the world. But along the way I have tried like hell to realize my faults and either fix them or find ways to work within them. I have made a honest assessment of what makes me happy and realized its not fancy cars or big houses, its spending time with my family and relaxing in between busting my ass so I can relax more in the future. I like to travel and have cash in my pocket to help people instead of dreaming about traveling and borrowing money to help fat-cat bankers.  

Stop and think what truly makes you smile like that little dude in that pic, I promise you if your honest with yourself it's not watching the Kardashians or a new car or a bigger house. Maybe it is... it's not for me I guess is what I should promise. 

Stop and think what your flaws are... don't point out others flaws, use that time and energy to fix yours, that's what will make you smile like little man above. 

*** As always please know I write this crap top inspire myself... I may be somewhat self aware, but I am screwing this shit up daily and am by no means judging anyone.