Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life

Ask almost anyone anywhere what they really want out of life and nine times out of ten their answer will be “to be happy.” Ask them further what will it take for that to happen and the answers seem to be simple. An overwhelming amount of people think that when they have that new home, new car, new job making good money, good health and that perfect love (is there really such a thing?) that they’ll finally be truly happy.

Looking back over the years this isn’t really too hard to understand. In America in the 1940’s the idea of “The American Dream” was promoted. This started out in the beginning as everyone having a nice family and owning a nice little home with a white picket fence with a chicken in every pot on Sunday. But, then came along the Jones’. Everyone knows who they are, they seem to have everything. They live in the biggest, fanciest home in town, drive the best cars, wear the designer clothes, know the best people, go to the best places with their smiling faces in all the media. Let’s face it The Jones’ really do appear to be the best and most of us envy them. So we try to keep up with them as best we can, in fact a lot of us strive to become The Jones’. That’s probably how the term “rat race” came into being.

The rat race, that’s everyone running as fast and hard as they can to get all the goodies. Some people manage to get a lot of them. Does that bring happiness? I don’t think so. There are too many examples of people who “have everything” who are miserable. Everyday we read and hear stories of these Jones’ (their names are actually different) who commit suicide, get divorces, kill people, starve themselves to stay thin – you name it they do it. That’s not my idea of what happiness is.

But I do know how to be happy and actually how to stay that way, at least the majority of the time. Here’s how.

First, learn to be grateful for what you have. Whatever you don’t have that you would like to have doesn’t take away from what you do have. Check out your life you’ll usually find plenty to appreciate. Whether you’re healthy, strong, intelligent, have a good job you enjoy, or a family, you have things to be grateful for. One person I’ve known for years has this saying that goes, “Every day above ground is a good day.” Now that may seem really basic to some people but this person suffered with Crohn’s for thirty years and never lost his zest for life. Another friend of mine has been legally blind since she was eighteen and although she is pretty close to totally blind now she still loves to go out dancing, singing and has learned to play several different musical instruments. Both of these people have learned to appreciate what they have and because of it they tend to be happy most of the time.