The crow was absolutely satisfied with his life, till the day he saw the swan. "This swan is so white and I am so black," the crow thought. “The swan must be the happiest bird in the world.”
He expressed his thoughts to the swan. “Actually,” the swan replied, “I thought I was the happiest bird around, until I saw the parrot with two colours. I now think the parrot is the happiest.” The crow approached the parrot.
The parrot explained, “I lived a very happy life — until I saw the peacock. I have two colours, but the peacock has such an array of colours.” The crow visited the peacock in the zoo and saw that hundreds of people had gathered to see him. After the people left, the crow approached the peacock. “Dear peacock, you are so beautiful.
Every day thousands of people come to see you. When people see me they immediately shoo me away. I think you must be the happiest bird on the planet.” The peacock replied, “I always thought I was the most beautiful and happy bird on the planet. But because of my beauty I am entrapped in this zoo. I have examined the zoo very carefully and I have realised that the crow is the only bird not kept in a cage. So for the past few days I have been thinking that had I been a crow I would have been free, not a prisoner.
You are the luckiest and should be the happiest bird!” Dear readers, are'nt we all like the crow? We make unnecessary comparisons with others, lose our selfconfidence and feel sad. We never value what we have. We all know that comparisons are odious and that happiness is a state of mind but we do little to escape from the vicious cycle of unhappiness. Here are four simple steps we can follow to become more contented persons.
1. Change our attitude and accept that we cannot buy happiness. Unhappy with our wardrobe, we go buy new clothes. Not content with our mobile, we buy the latest and most expensive one. Discontented people often engage in ‘if, when and then’ thinking. We tell ourselves, “If I get that I will be happy; when this goes away then I will be happy.” We think we can satisfy our unhappy urges by simply spending more money, knowing very well that in a while unhappiness will resurface. We must break this habit and must get to the root cause of our unhappiness. We have to change our attitude and take control of our life. Our happiness is based solely on our decision to be happy – and this may be one of the most important lessons we can ever learn.
2. Stop comparing ourselves with others. Comparing our life with someone else’s will always lead to discontentment. There will always be people who “appear” to be better off – more beautiful, luckier, more intelligent, more fortunate than we are. But take a closer look. No one's life is as perfect as our mind makes it out to be. Each of us has burdens to carry. Some of us choose to be unhappy, others face it bravely – that is the only difference.
3. Be grateful. It is impossible to develop contentment without gratitude – they are inseparable. A grateful person is one who learns to focus on the good things in life, not the things that they lack. When we start to feel unhappy and unlucky, we should start making a list – of all the good things in our life. Just writing about gratitude will make us feel good.
4. Help others. When we step away from focus on self and begin helping others, sharing our talent, time and money, we will find ourselves learning to be content. This practice helps us appreciate what we own, who we are, and what we have to offer.
Be careful not to confuse contentment with complacency. Let us be content with what we have, never with what we are. We should never stop learning, growing, discovering. We have to take pride in our achievements and the progress that we make, but never become so content that we cannot find room for improvement. As soon as we stop growing, we start fading away.