There is no doubt that the things we watch, activities that occupy us and the people we surround ourselves with, can make life fun or boring and devastating. The good news is it’s never too late to decide on how to change your life for the better. Vlogger Flavia Tumusiime, highlights that there are things you have to eliminate if you want to level up, glow and be happy. And one of these is to change what you watch- Know who and what is influencing you because it has a possibility of forming your entire life. She says, sometimes you just click on one YouTube video that leads you to many more other videos, and its easy to even take one hour or more just watching. Before you know it, you have wasted your precious time on videos that are not even informative or with no message to carry home. “I personally have been caught up watching series on Netflix and kept sliding to the next seasons and wondered how I completed four seasons in just two days. Its even addictive catching other series. Sometimes I would reduce my sleeping hours just to continue with the series,” she says. Ways to live a happier and productive life. Photos/net. Tumusiime urges changing what you’re watching and replacing it with productive or knowledgeable content, either from podcasts, such as the ‘Mastery session’ by Robin Sharma which she explains has been educative for her. She also notes that even if you’re to watch YouTube, search for content that you need, if you’re a mother, or father, parenting videos would be okay to watch. If you’re dating, videos on relationships would guide you, and so forth. She dislikes the idea of one searching through YouTube without having in mind what to watch because it is easy to be distracted by unnecessary videos. In his book, ‘The Art of Happiness’, author and Dr Howard C. Cutler, writes that happiness is the purpose of life. Once a person’s basic needs are met, happiness is more the result of the mind rather than events, external conditions, and circumstances. This book explains that we each hold the key to our own happiness. It argues that, by training our hearts and minds, and by actively working on our attitudes and outlook, we can all achieve happiness. “Pay attention to the things that make us happy and to eliminate the things that make us suffer. By achieving peace of mind in this way, we can move away from material goods and to seek contentment and an inner sense of worth,” Cutler writes. Irene Mwiza is one of the many people who have discovered happiness in unexpected ways. The resident of Gikondo and a business woman had lost her shine many years back due to a relationship break-up that left her puzzled and wondering how to make her life fun as a single woman. It didn’t come easy, but until she changed some habits, life has never been the same. For Mwiza, changing her looks is what she did first. She started exercising and dieting so as to be fully comfortable and smart in some of her nice clothes that weren’t fitting anymore. Although it took long to show results, she says had to persist because she needed to prove to herself that she could manage. Once she hit her body weight goals, her confidence got boosted. She also ventured into her own business and she now never depends on anyone for financial support like before. Mwiza has also tried to distance and cut off connections and friendships that weren’t helping her grow into a better person or taking her to the next level. “I also resorted to reading books and I must confess that it has empowered and challenged me to leave my comfort zone, and use the knowledge and ideas to reform as an individual, friend, believer and business personnel,” she says. A Harvard study shows that close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.
