Happiness Diaries Episode 43: Jono (Morocco)

Hey there! My name is Jonothan. I’m a 22, Australian and I have been traveling around the world for the last 18 months. 

Happiness has always been a fascinating concept for me, there are so many questions and most people seem to have different answers. A lot of people seem to focus on things that make them happy, and I would say that those people are probably wiser than me, because I have a tendency to focus more on the things that make me unhappy and try and to remove those from my life. It doesn’t always work but it does help sometimes. 

Some of the big things that have always brought me unhappiness is stress, over thinking and the need to always be in control of whatever situation I find myself in. For example even after I finally decided that I was going to quit my job and start traveling (something I’ve always wanted to do) it took me nearly 7 very stressful months to actually leave. 

However from the moment I started traveling there were always so many things out of my control and an abundance of potentially stressful situations, so something had to give. 

I learned to let go of control and just let the things that were going to happen, happen. I learned to stop trying to plan everything by the minute and just go to a new place, see who I could meet in hostels, see what there was to do and then just do what I most felt like doing. 

Learning to let go of stress and worry has helped me a lot. I don’t know if I can say that it’s made me happy, as I’ve always been somewhat of a happy person, but it’s certainly helped me to not be unhappy.