What is Happiness? | Homework4success

It?s a mental state. Being pleased and content. Enjoying myself. Having fun.

My age, experiences, physical condition, finances, possessions and other things affect my happiness. Right? ? ? ? ? Only if I let them!

We grow up hearing things such as ?I?m so happy to be getting married?, ?going on vacation makes me happy?, ?I can?t wait for retirement so I can be happy?, ?a new car would really make me happy?. We know what people mean when they say it. It?s normal to anticipate pleasure. We don?t argue with the words.

The truth is the marriage may be great or end in divorce. Vacations can go smoothly, be a disaster or someplace in between. Retirement can be exactly what I thought it would be or nothing like it. New cars may or may not be good. None of those things force me to be happy or unhappy. Those two things are decided by me.

What is the lesson I should learn from all this? Seems simple to me. I can waste my life searching for happiness or decide to be happy and enjoy it regardless of the ups and downs.

What?s that I hear? People arguing that we don?t have a choice? You can?t be happy if you?re broke, sick, disabled, mentally slow, (you fill in the blank). We wouldn?t choose those things but history is full of people who overcame them or adjusted to them. How could they do it?

Attitude. Think about it. Does a person handicapped in some way enjoy life more when struggling toward accomplishing self assigned goals or grieving about bad luck? My experience is trying to do something about whatever I would like to change takes me closer to pleased and content than complaining.

How about people who are not handicapped? Ever hear of rich, beautiful, famous people who are miserable? Athletes with perfect bodies who can?t seem to find happiness? Why?
Don?t know what it is? Don?t know where to look? Probably both.

It sure seems logical to me to try self improvement by changing attitude and habits. Deciding what I want to change and working toward changing it are healthy and rewarding. Who knows? It has worked for lots of people before me. Why not me?

Ken

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Source: http://www.homework4success.com/2012/08/17/what-is-happiness/

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