Happiness
Fred might, on just having lost his job, decide that he now has the opportunity to have a new work experience, to explore new possibilities and to exercise his independence in the workplace. His brother Bill might, under the same circumstances, decide to jump off a twenty story building and end it all. Given the same situation, on man rejoices while the other man commits suicide! One man sees disaster and the other man sees opportunity.
I may have simplified things a little here but the fact remains that we decide how we react in life. (And even if we lose control, that is a decision that we make. We perhaps decide, "Things are getting a little too difficult for me. I think I will lose my mind for a while!")
Being happy is not always easy, though. It can be one of the greatest challenges that we face and can sometimes take all the determination, persistence and self-discipline that we can muster. Maturity means taking responsibility for our own happiness and choosing to concentrate on what we have got rather than on what we haven't.
We are necessarily in control of our own happiness as we decide the thoughts we think. No-one else put thoughts in our mind. To be happy, we need to concentrate on happy thoughts. How often, though, do we do the opposite? How often do we ignore the compliments that are paid to us yet dwell on unkind words for weeks afterwards? If you allow a bad experience or nasty remark to occupy your mind, you will suffer the consequences. Remember, you are in control of your own mind.
Most people remember compliments for a few minutes and insults for years. They become garbage collectors, carrying around trash that was thrown at them twenty years ago. Mary may be heard to say, " I still remember how he said that I was fat and stupid back in 1963!" Any compliments Mary received even yesterday will probably have been forgotten but she is still carting around the 1963 trash.
I remember, age twenty five, waking up one day and deciding that I had had enough of being miserable. i thought to myself, "If you are going to be a really happy person someday, why don't you start now?" That day I decided to be a whole lot happier than I had ever been before. I was stunned. It actually worked!
I then began to ask other happy people how they came to be so happy. Invariably, their answer reflected my experience exactly. They would say, "I had had enough misery, heartache, loneliness and I DECIDED to change things."
In a nutshell
Being happy can be hard work sometimes. It is like maintaining a nice home - you've got to hang on to your treasures and throw out the garbage. Being happy requires looking for good things. One person sees the beautiful view and the other sees the dirty window. You choose what you see and you choose what you think.
Kazantzakis said, "You have your brush and colors. You paint paradise, then in you go."
Andrew Matthews
Words:
muster: verb:
sự tập hợp, to gather together (especially soldiers for duty or inspection).
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