Be Happy!

Sounds like such a simple concept, doesn’t it? But for some of us it isn’t so simple. I admit I have not been the happiest of people through the years. I have been one to say, “I will be happy when I _____”; fill in the blank with almost anything: graduate, pass the exam, have a career, get married, get a puppy, and the list goes on and on. Happiness as a future concept won’t make today a very happy day. However, recently I have been reading some insightful books and taking some great seminars and have come to realize that it really is important to be happy today. We have only one life and except for the vampires of the world, we are all mortal, and unless you can predict the future, no one knows what will happen tomorrow.

I want to share something simple yet insightful from a seminar I recently attended. The stresses and problems in life are only ‘events’, and so far you have survived every ‘event’ that has been thrown at you. In fact, you will survive every single ‘event’ in your life, with only one exception, the final one (death). So, since we realize that we can and have survived everything, the key is realizing these ‘events’ aren’t as bad as we may first think they are. If you are like me, you tend to blow some things out of proportion – traffic, bad weather, change in plans, an argument, etc. Visualize a scale from 0% to 100%, this scale represents physical ‘events’: 2% is a bump, 5% a bruise, 7% a cut, 10% a sprained ankle, 15% a broken non-dominant arm, 20% broken dominant arm, 50% loss of a non-dominant limb, etc, all the way up to 100% being the worst physical pain possible. So if you equate the other events in life to this scale, you will find that you will never reach above a 10% let alone come close to 50%. For example, traffic would probably only equate to a bump (2%) on the physical event scale, but you may act like it is the end of the world when you are stuck in a jam. Putting events into perspective like this really helps you realize that things are not as bad as we make them out to be. So, be happy!