Are you looking for happiness in your day to day life? Have you ever stopped to realize what is stealing away your happiness? We believe it’s the shoplifters and here are some tips to help you make them stop.

 

Your Store, Your Merchandise

Metaphorically, every human represents a store with an array of merchandise to offer that helps contribute to your happiness. The products you offer to others depends on the role you play in their life. Your friends and family represent your regular customers. It must also be noted that your Mall is dynamic in nature relative to your location at a particular time. When you are at your workplace, your Mall changes to consist of your Boss and co-workers who all represent the different stores in your mall.

 

Your Store’s Inventory

Your inventory consists of your:

  • personality
  • values
  • attitude
  • sense of humor
  • temperament
  • physical and emotional strength
  • endurance threshold
  • compassion
  • income
  • social status
  • culture
  • belief
  • level of commitment
  • intelligence
  • creativity
  • and the list goes on.

 

Sadly, you have no power to control the inventory in these stores nor do you have the power to handle their stock outs, physical counting, store keeping records and ultimately their logistics. Each store has the autonomy to handle their content inventory, just like you have the autonomy to determine the products you offer in your store and control your happiness.

 

Do you try to offer compassion, empathy, honesty and whatever is needed to the people you care about? Then consider yourself a good and remarkable store keeper and I can bet you would have a lot of prodigious patronage.

 

Shoplifting

However, you are liable to SHOPLIFTING also known as stealing your happiness!!! This comes from the people who take advantage of you, it could be family, friends, coworkers or even yourself.

 

Shoplifting describes an in balance in what you offer others. It is a lack of setting boundaries and getting your needs met. Who wouldn’t want to shop from a mega store with an amazing collection of wonderful traits to offer and not give anything in return? When you have amazing stuff, people may take advantage of your good nature and drain you of your resources especially your happiness.

 

In order to be able to guard your inventory and prevent it from being stolen you must know how to extricate the SHOPLIFTERS in your life.

 

Take Control of Your Happiness

If you are a people pleaser you are the most vulnerable to shoplifters. People that know you develop expectations that you will help them and ask nothing in return. To protect against shoplifters it is important to not say yes automatically. Respond with a statement “Let me check my calendar”, or “I need to think about that” to give yourself time to evaluate if you want to offer that service and what do you need as compensation. Regardless of the variety of products you offer in your store/relationships, it is critically important and necessary for you to protect your inventory against shoplifters and in return control your own happiness. If you let others demand what they need from you and take from you without asking you will not be in business. Using the shopping metaphor is a way to use your shopping skills in relationship situations to make them more fulfilling and satisfying and be consistently happy.

Remember, if you want an eggroll get out of the pizzeria and go to the store that carries what you want. You always have a choice where you shop.