Looking around where I work at the faces of the average
customer, enjoying life is not the norm for people. I wonder why? Why are we so
unhappy? What about being human means being unhappy? Thinking about the
possible reasons, there is really no good excuse. Here in America, known to be
one of the most abundantly affluent nations in history, American society is
still saturated with discontent, discord, and depression. Surely Happiness has nothing
to do with wealth. I’ve seen rich people who are chronically unhappy and I’ve
seen poor people with faces that beam and radiate out a joyful expression.
Wealth does not produce happiness, at least not wealth as defined in purely a
monetary sense.
Could it be workplaces? No, where you work has nothing to do
with how happy you are. I work at a place where people both are happy and
unhappy. They work at the same place and do nearly the same job as everyone
else, yet unhappiness is still pervasive enough to persuade the majority of
people to hate their job. But the place I work does not convince everyone that they are unhappy,
clearly being unhappy has nothing to do with being happy if people with the
same job differentiate into two groups that are either happy and enjoy life or
to another larger group that is unhappy with life.
What of family? Again, and resoundingly so, the answer is
no.
Health? No!
The list goes on and on. No matter what, there is always an
excuse to be unhappy. There is always enough plaintiveness in life to become a
point of contention with living to the extent of making you unhappy. But if
everyone has a reason to be unhappy why then is everyone not unhappy?
At last the real question has been asked! The answer is so
simple most people will not understand it or believe that it is true. The
answer is this: you enjoy life to the extent that you choose to. There is an abundance
of anything that you want to look at in both categories of positive and
negative. In other words, you are responsible for your smile, not anything or
anyone else. You decide what to think about. You decide whether to be happy or
sad. The thoughts that run through your head are yours and come from your decisions
to be happy or unhappy.
You could argue say that it’s not genuine happiness, and
that’s true at first. But once you just by habit think of the positive and
joyful sides of life instead of making yourself do it, then you are truly
happy. Break the habit of self-assigned sorrow, look up and keep your chin up
until that’s your new posture, then you will be happy most all the time. I did
it, and you can too. It will take a little bit of work, but you can be happy.
So what do you think? Have you ever done this? Is there
another secret to happiness other than the one I just prescribed?
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