You know today I thought a lot about the statement above.  I’d say that there have been definite periods of my life where I’d actually have looked down on someone for saying a phrase like “Life is about being happy.”  I’d consider them a malingerer, a loser, or a bum.  Basically, because at one point in my life, the phrase “Be Happy” conjured up images of someone ambling along a beach without a care in the world, with no goals or ambition.  I thought of a person who sought happiness to be a malcontent, a hippie, or an aimless drifter who was going nowhere.

I, on the other hand, was going somewhere.  And I was going to sacrifice, put my nose to the grindstone, and avoid things that were fun all in the name of making my mark.  Getting ahead.  Showing the world that I was no happy-go-lucky freeloader but a serious contender who deserved to be reckoned with.

You see I’d even poo-poo the idea of happiness thinking that it was more spiritual to search for joy and not the fleeting bursts of titillation called happiness.  Joy sounded more magnanimous, took more work, and was more rewarding in the end.  Somehow, in my mind, joy was better than happiness and damn it, I was going to make sure I showed the world that I had a lot of it.  Fuck happiness!  That’s for deadbeats.  I’ve got joy and it took work to get it!  Well, it took a long time, but I finally started to accept that maybe happiness was a precursor to joy?  Happiness was the set of training wheels that help you learn to ride the big bicycle of joy.

Well, my old attitude did get me somewhere.  It got me qualified to do more work that required more sacrifice and more long hours.  Basically, sacrificing happiness got me more of exactly what I was asking for – more tedium and deadlines.  But the strange thing, none of that achievement really brought me a whole lot of what I really wanted:  happiness.  And, though it was fun and I have a huge passion for what I do for a living, no matter what you do, it’s not worth it if you achieve it at the expense of basic happiness.

And really, being happy is a very simple way to live.  Would I love to take a trip to Italy tomorrow?  Yes, I’ve never been but I will get there some day.  Will two hours sitting out in the sun and listening to a band in a park make me happy today?  You know what?  It sure would.  And I wouldn’t even need to give up striving for my trip to Italy to do it.  It would just make me happy to be outside, among people who were having fun and relaxing.  I’d notice people laughing, wonder what they were talking about that made them laugh, look at weird hair-do’s and clothing styles and think of funny backstories about those life decisions. I’d watch people drink a beer and remember the time I stole a can of Grain Belt beer from my Grandpa’s refrigerator and drank it with disdain when I was twelve.  To this day the taste of that beer was so bad I can’t believe I ever drank another.  But, all of this would make me happy and it’s all stuff that’s personal to me.

You see, I choose to be happy and find happiness in simple things, today.  Here.  Right now.  Not next week, next month, or next year.  I choose to be happy this very second and my choice didn’t take an act of Congress to accomplish.  It was quick, easy, and painless to decide and there’s nothing wrong with that decision.  In fact, it’s very right to choose to be happy.

Most importantly, don’t fear happiness like its a sign of moral decadence or selfishness.  How many people have you met in your life who offer you advice on happiness and how to live a fulfilled life who are doing none of what they are advocating you to do?  There are too many people like that.  If you can’t be happy yourself, how in the hell are you qualified to instruct someone else to find it?

Happiness can reach your life on the simplest levels.  I like to workout and eat right but at the same time, the taste of an ice cream sandwich on a hot day is all I need.  It makes me happy when the cake part gets mushy and sticks to my fingers.  Happiness can be found when taking a walk in comfortable shoes, rolling in fresh line-dried sheets on your bed, or listening to a good song on the radio during a drive with the windows down and the heat on.  It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it makes you happy.  It just takes awareness.  You have to notice simple things. And sometimes, happy is good enough.