DO YOU REALLY NEED (FILL IN THE BLANK)?

"I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive."

Henry Miller, 20th century American writer.

This stretches things a bit but there is truth nonetheless.

Beyond the basics necessary for reasonable survival our wants are optional.

Pursue wealth and all that buys as much as you like, but not to where it impacts your happiness.

The Rolling Stones were right.

MORE SO THAN NOT

"After all, life is really simple; we ourselves create the circumstances that complicate it."

Unknown

True.

We create drama where none existed, worry without cause, and anger that outlasts its cause.

Life would be much simpler if none of that were true.

YOUR HAPPINESS: IT'S UP TO YOU!

"Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions."

14th Dalai Lama

Great advice for both our personal and professional lives.

Who will have most to say about your own happiness?

If not you, who?

WHO DID THIS TO YOU? YOU DID THIS TO YOU

"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them."

Khalil Gibran, 19th/20th century Lebanese-American artist/poet.

We do, the result of our thoughts, actions and the people we choose to associate with as well as those we don't.

People, your happiness, your destiny is on you much more than it's not.

Looking for reasons to explain why you're not happy?

Look to yourself.

SOMETHING TO WORRY ABOUT

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."

Corrie Ten Boom, 20th century author

This suggests we should just put worry aside and deal with problems as they arise.

I wish it were that simple.

But we can reduce, if not eliminate, much of what we do worry about.

It's well worth the effort.

YOU LOSE, PERIOD, WHEN YOU LOSE CONTROL

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."

Mark Twain, 19th century American author/humorist

Not sure how this might apply to you?

If not you might have a much bigger anger management problem than you think.

HOW FORTUNATE YOU (ALREADY) ARE

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings."

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American philosopher/author.

Doing just that won't get you very far; there's much more to accumulating blessings than just counting them.

And only recognizing blessings, at the expense of addressing problems, is a sure fire recipe for failure.

But it is a start.

You recognizing how fortunate you already are sets a baseline for becoming as fortunate as you wish to be.

THE JOY OF UNHAPPINESS

"A lifetime of happiness? No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth."

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish writer.

So, if you're not always happy, which no one I know is, you're normal.

Life in balance, no extremes.

HAPPINESS IN THE MOMENT

"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) French poet/writer/art critic.

Not as soppy as it may first appear to be.

We're all occasionally guilty of chasing something we believe we must have to be happy, only to put it aside when we get it to so we can set off in pursuit of something else we're really certain will make us happy.

There's plenty to be happy about now; enjoy this moment.

HOBBES KNOWS

"The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness."

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American philosopher/author.

Contentedness is a form of happiness.

Find that and you'll be happy, tail or no tail.

ONLY TWO AND WE ALL EXPERIENCE THEM BOTH

"Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart's desire; the other is to get it."

Socrates (BC 469-BC 399) Greek philosopher of Athens

Because both are based on extremes.

The first about the thing we tell ourselves we cannot live without, the second when we achieve it and realize we can.

COME ON, GIVE US A SMILE!

"So of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more it remains."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet, essayist and lecturer.

And if this weren't true, which it is, you have something to say about your attitude; why not display more of the positive than the negative?

THE RETIRING LIFE

"Boredom: the desire for desires."

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian writer.

Planning for a time when we have nothing to do is the most important planning we all should (but don't all) do.

Left with nothing, you can best hope the time left to you is blessedly short.

MONEY BUYS . . .

"It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness."

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third president of the United States.

Good for all of us to remember and none more than those just beginning their careers.

Happiness comes from what we do for a living and how we relax when not working, not the wealth that comes with the job or the things we buy hoping for happiness.

Money buys a lot, just not happiness.

WHAT PRICE EVERYTHING?

"If your desires be endless, your cares and fears will be so too."

Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) British clergyman/author

The key to understanding this is the word "endless".

If only everything, or at the very least, much, much more, will satisfy you, you will never be satisfied.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK

"Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts."

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Danish philosopher/writer

What we think can and often does become our reality.

If we perpetually think "down" we will be "down".

Don't underestimate the ability of your thoughts to make you something you may not want to be.

HARMONIOUS LIFE

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) Preeminent leader of Indian nationalism

My aversion to "happiness is . . ." quotes notwithstanding, this one I like.

Most people, myself included, don't come close to regularly achieving this admirable goal.

THAT'S HOME??

"Where thou art, that is home."

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet

Those who agree with this will have an easier time building a career than will those who believe otherwise.

I was always of the mind that it was more important to find a job where I wanted to live than it was to live where I found a job.

Jobs come and go; how bad would it be to be without one in a place you wouldn't otherwise choose to be?

GO IRISH!

"Even when they have nothing, the Irish emit a kind of happiness, a joy."

Fiona Shaw

20th/21st century Irish actress/theater/opera director

Yes they do.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all including the 16.7% Irish proportion of me.

DOING NOTHING IS HARD WORK

"The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation."

George Bernard Shaw

Late 19th/early 20th century Irish writer

Good to remember next time you wonder why you're not happy.