Choosing Happiness

[RMG]

From a recent blog of mine. Enjoy!

One of the most famous self-help authors of all-time, Dale Carnegie, once said: “Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get”.

My daughter is a preschooler and one of her favorite songs is “If you’re happy and you know clap your hands”.

I’m sure you’re familiar with it. The verses alternate with different directions regarding what to do if you’re happy. If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands, or stomp your feet or shout hooray!

One of the things I’ve observed with this song is that just about any child who hears it is all too willing to show their happiness by clapping, stomping and shouting. The beauty of this is to me that children have an incredible way getting in touch with the emotion of happiness. They can do it on a whim.

Have you ever noticed that if a child falls down and slightly scrapes a knee or elbow, they almost invariably look to their parent for a cue as to how to respond? An immediate look of concern or panic by the parent is almost guaranteed to create a crying spell by the child, whereas a reassuring “you’re ok” and BIG smile can almost always short circuit the crying reflex, sometimes even resulting in giggling!

Now think about adults for a moment. How many adults that you know are really happy and really willing to show it? If you’re like me, you probably know a bunch of grown ups who define happiness as the absence of problems or challenges or worries. What’s amazing about that is that it’s virtually impossible to be happy by that so-called grown up definition. Thus, even when adults are happy or should be happy, they often don’t even know it, much less show it!

Dale Carnegie said “Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get.”

Success, like life, in not a destination, but a journey—and happiness…happiness is a choice.

What do you choose?

[Karen]

Hi Randy

Great post. I agree happiness is a choice - we can choose minute by minute how we want to feel.

I love watching kids because they only live in the moment and don't worry about the next moment.

Karen

[midwestmedia]

[KathleenGageSpeaker]

One of the best examples I ever experienced on this was when I met W. Mitchell. He lives by the phylosophy of, "It's not what happens, it's what you do about it!" He has written a book by this title.

For a truly life changing experience, visit his site and read his book. Against all odds, he has chosen happiness.

A quick google search on W. Mitchell will give you many of his listings.

Kathleen Gage