Happiness and Choices
Your happiness is directly related to whether you think you have a choice about the way you live your life. One reason why we are not happier is that our culture is constantly trying to convince us that there is only one way to be successful, beautiful and happy.
If our culture spoke with one voice, it would say things like:
o “Walk the straight and narrow. Do not take chances”.
o “If you want to be successful, get an advanced education and work hard all the time, maximize your productivity”.
o “If you want to be beautiful, buy these products, remove hair from these places and mimic the actions of these people exactly.”
o “If you want to be happy, then you must make lots of money.”
Sometimes you walk into work and people are feeling lousy because it is raining outside? People feel lousy because it is raining? There is no necessary relationship between sadness and rain. In addition, people often feel sad because it is Monday. What is the sense in that? These attitudes are taught by our culture. Recognize that there are a million reasons to be happy; having enough money is only one reason.
The best way to ensure your happiness is to cultivate flexibility and creativity, despite your limitations. Billionaires and poor people each have limitations in their life. No matter who you are you can be happy. Imagine that you are a master sculptor and you have been given a stone to carve. The stone is a metaphor for your life. Some people receive large stones, and others receive small stones. Your challenge is to accept the limitations of your individual stone and create a masterpiece.
To be happy you need to be flexible. Ask yourself, what opportunities are possible in this situation? If you lose your theatre tickets, you might discover the opportunity to create an adventure out of going to the theatre. Will someone be sitting in your seat? Will they own-up to finding lost tickets? This could be interesting. Life is like a roller coaster, you have the freedom to choose to be afraid on the rollercoaster, or you can be excited and happy.
