Starting Your Journey
Episode #10 of the course How to be happy now … not “then” by Colin Triplett
Welcome to the last lesson of the course!
At this point, you already know why your mind is the way it is, how to break free of your current mind patterns (the AMR Method), and what life will start looking like when you do.
To wrap things up, I wanted to give you a few thoughts on what your journey will be like as you continue to work toward happiness.
First, let’s talk about where you will struggle because while this journey will be the most rewarding of your life, it will not be easy.
Where You Will Get Stuck
Other People. Every day you will interact with all types of people, in all types of ways. What you will start noticing is when other people are not as enlightened as you. But in judging them, you are now back in your mind!
This just shows you that other people will bring to light all the things you still have not accepted and will give you a clear indication of what you need to work on. A good perspective you can use to work through this quickly is from our last lesson: It took everything for this person to be the way they are, and that means that if you were them (had all their same experiences) you would be the same way.
When you can remember this, all you can feel is empathy and compassion. Because the truth is, we are all on this journey. We all just want happiness, but we all have to go through our own journey to get there.
Pain. If you are in pain, being present is not easy. What I will say, however, is that it can be helpful to understand what pain is (and is not). Pain is an action signal, a way for your body to prompt change.
This could be an acute change like, “Take your hand off the burner!” or it could be a more long-term change like, “Stop working for a boss who abuses you!” What you will notice about that second example is that most people would not think of a stressful job as the root cause of their pain, but it can be!
This could be a whole course in itself, but I wanted to bring it up because pain makes it hard to stay in the present. However, if you know that it is an action signal, then you can look for the stressors that you need to change instead of giving up because you think it’s inevitable due to injury, age, etc.
Yourself. When you inevitably “fail” at staying in the present, it is natural to get down on yourself, which just pushes you more into your mind. The key here is to know that “enlightenment” is not the goal. The goal is just awareness and re-centering. You probably will never reach a state of complete bliss (though it is possible), but that’s okay. You now have a path to come back to, and as long as you always return, you can never fail.
Now let’s talk about the three things you will need to do to make this work.
The Three Commitments
Commit to life. You must commit to experiencing and enjoying life. This needs to be your primary purpose in life, with all other “goals” seen as secondary. Those goals still matter, but only if you are first focused on being the witness.
Commit to the work. There are no shortcuts to happiness. Just like dental health requires daily brushing, mental health requires daily practice of the AMR Method. The work you do will be cumulative, so the more consistent you are, the better your results!
Commit to the process. Know that there is no “destination.” It is the journey that matters. When you go on a rollercoaster, you enjoy the ups, downs, and turnarounds—not the end. Life can be an amazing adventure, but only if you remember that there is nothing you can “get” that will bring you any more joy than being present.
Congratulations!
You now have the knowledge and tools to be happy now, not “then.” Put what you know into practice, and you will start finding more love, peace, joy, and happiness in your life.
To Your Happiness,
Colin
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