The Pursuit Of Happiness

Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independance that we are all endowed by our Creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But how do we go about pursuing happiness?

Well, most of us believe that having or doing the things we desire will make us happy. We look for happiness to come to us from outside of ourselves. It has been said that the average American is one purchase away from happiness. Most of us think "When I have that new house, or car, boat, college degree, relationship, job, etc. (you name it), I will be happy." And usually when we achieve a goal we are happy for a while. But then we find that we still feel a certain discontent.

Then we may think "Well, if I had a BIGGER house, car, boat, etc. I would be happy." It is easy to fall into the trap of this kind of thinking. Our economic system is based on it. We are constantly barraged by advertising that promotes it.

But there is another point of view that says that happiness is an inside job. Rather than trying to get happiness from the outside we can be happy within and take that happiness into whatever we do.

Abraham Lincoln said "Most folks are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be." That is, happiness can be a conscious choice. It is not easy for most of us. It requires changing our habitual thought patterns and we humans are very much creatures of habit.

This came home to me forcefully one day as I was commuting to work. I was behind schedule on a project and was running a bit late. Suddenly the traffic on the freeway ground to a halt. There I was, trapped in the inside lane unable to move. My first reaction was frustration and anger at whoever the "idiot" was who caused this backup.

Then I thought "Is this how I want to feel?" My answer was "No, I want to be happy." I began looking around for something pleasant to think about and noticed there were sprinklers along the freeway spraying water on some newly planted bushes. The sunshine was making rainbows in the spray. It was beautiful. The next thing I knew the driver behind me was honking his horn and the traffic was moving.

As I drove on to work I was in a good mood and said a prayer thanking God for sunshine and rainbows. I thought to myself "I can do this any time I start to feel irritated by things around me." That was in 1988. Since that time I have used this technique many times. Sometimes it works immediately and sometimes it takes a few minutes, but it always works.

We really are, as Lincoln said, "Just about as happy as we make up our minds to be."