A HAPPINESS SECRET (WELL, SO IT SEEMS!)

Have you ever heard “If only..xyz happened..., then I'd be happy.” Have you ever caught that thought crossing your own mind?

[Then I'll Be Happy – Joséphine Baker]

There is nothing on earth I can think of that has Happiness and Success intrinsically contained within it. Happiness and Satisfaction are No-things: so possessing a Something, no matter what it is, will not get you a No-thing like Happiness or Satisfaction. It's a fruitless quest .

A lot of people covet what others appear to have, and decide “they're just lucky”; that they stumble into their fortunes. Whatever you think, you are, of course, right. But you don't have the whole picture. How could you? If you can't remember the feelings of being naturally wealthy and happy, you can't possibly manufacture or reproduce it, nor can you pass it on to your children, either in your genes or by example. But it's really quite simple.

Happiness already is. Like sunshine, the way you see things and the way you think filter how much of it shines on you. You are as happy as you choose to be.

Now this is not a rant about “positive thinking”. I tried that; in the long run it didn't work for me. I found that if I wanted to be abundantly happy, I had to re-learn to feel, think and behave like an abundantly happy person.

[Get Happy – Caroline O'Connor]

First off, I had to get that I was seeing things back-to-front. I didn't have to be happy first  before I could see things the way a happy person sees them; I found the opposite -- that if I chose to see things as they are from a happy perspective, I became happy. I learned that the way I had been seeing things (ie. negatively) was an acquired habit, and habits are default choices. I was warned by a wise man called Colin Hayes that, if I kept on making the same default choices, I'd keep getting the same default results. What I needed to do was un-tick the “Default” box, get happy that I was back on track, and create some different choices and habits.

During my childhood and teen years I had drummed into me long and hard, that if I paid attention in school, got good grades, went to a respectable university, got a secure job, and followed the family faith, my happiness and fulfillment was somehow virtually guaranteed. But “joyful” and “content” are not words I would ever have associated with my parents or any of my extended family. The Barklas and the Friees were a dour, joyless lot.

[I've Got a Life – Eurythmics]

The reality is that few people who follow the hard work and sacrifice formula ever get rich, or happy. Not really. They survive, and some may become the most successful people in their families. But when you look around the living room at 3pm on Christmas Day, that's not saying much. But world-class satisfaction is rarely achieved by people who follow this model. The rich eventually figure out that training your mind and intuition to find solutions to difficult problems is the real secret to making genuine headway. They find that unusual results don't lie at the end of the freeway – they're off the beaten track.

The average person believes the harder they work, the more money they’ll make. That linear kind of thinking equates labour and effort with financial and emotional success. This is why most people aren’t either rich or happy. They’re following an outdated model of success and are confounded when they reach middle age with little money or satisfaction to show for twenty years of hard work. The older we become the behinder we get.

Wealthy people know that creative thinking is the highest paid skill in the world. The happy know that creative consideration is the most effective skill in the world. Independent, awareful, creative thinking is the most valuable asset anyone can practice. There's more available in life than struggling to put your kids through tertiary education and retiring on half of what you can barely exist on now. Even if you do better than that in the long run, if you haven't enjoyed and been excited by the journey, the destination is going to be one helluva disappointment.

[Is That All There Is? – Peggy Lee]

Meanwhile, others are building empires, living in abundance, and donating large sums to their favourite causes. This sets off a different quality of psychological domino effect, because once a person thinks and lives at this level of gratitude, they know even greater levels of success are possible through the vehicle of creative, optimal consciousness.

The good news is that this is possible for anyone who conditions their mind to think this way, and then transforms thought into a different kind of reality and action.

The secret is not in any technology or gymnastics of Happiness but in the quality of our basic operating principles, our attitudes, and the levels of thinking and feeling that reveal them. Once you learn to embrace this transforming shift, your potential goes through the ceiling. Happiness is closer than the end of your nose; you're actually soaking in it.

[Happiness – Heather Frahn]