Living , is this it ?

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions” – Dalai Lama

After a hectic 2 weeks , I have finally found some spare time to write. Apologies for taking my time on writing my next article.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes the most enjoyable thing to do for me is to find a  nice quiet spot in a coffee shop, in a busy mall and just watching the people as they scurry about doing their things. I have always found that everyone has this attitude of  “My life and the things that I do are more important that what you do”. This attitude I believe chips away at our feeling of community and it can be present all over.

To give you the a quick and easy example , I have a friend who is a nursery school teacher, and she lives life proud and loud but can be one of the most judgemental people that I  can think of – especially when we talk about our careers . ( Now before we continue – I don’t believe in one job / career being more important than another, everybody should do the things that they love doing and the rest will work themselves out) however it grinds my gears when I hear my friend complaining about some or other little one that did this or that and how her job is this and that and I am sitting here going – er I face this or that thing on a daily basis with clients / colleagues and her immediate reaction would be to write off what you said.

Situations like that got me thinking about my own life and the things I do that I believe is the key to my personal happiness and enjoyment of life. I wake up with a smile on my face and go to work more than willing, I don’t get Monday blues and I don’t live my week for Friday. ( And for those wondering , I work in IT and spend my day behind screens 24/7)

In the same breath I can say that I don’t drink, smoke, do drugs or have one night stands either or any of that other wise “YOLO” bull that I hear everyone refer to. In my opinion saying “YOLO” just before doing something is finding a cheap ass excuse to do something that we both know is a stupid idea and you are going to regret it when you are done with it.

What is my path to happiness , well that is easy . 3 things that I do on a daily basis that I think is all we need:

1. Wake up with thankful heart – Life is not a given , it is a privilege and a gift to be able to wake up in the morning and face a new day, especially if we think about it – there is no guarantee that we will wake up tomorrow

2. Have a serving attitude – We need to learn how to serve before we can lead. A true leader, be it a captain of a sports team or a manager in a corporation should always be the tip of the ‘spear’ holding onto his team members as they tackle a problem together. To lead , is to serve.

3. Make someone else’s day special – There is nothing more pleasing than to do something for someone else especially when they are not able to pay it back. Learn to be able to do something for someone else and not expect something in return. I read an interesting quote the other day and the author’s name escapes my mind, however I do remember the quote,“People will forget what you did and what you said, however they will never forget how you made them feel”

Now don’t get me wrong , I won’t stand here and say that if you follow these above guidelines that you will be happy every day for the rest of your life. I do have off days like everyone else and having a bad day is a easy as catching a cold or breaking a nail, though I do believe that these guidelines will help you have more good days than bad days, and that in itself is all we should just strive for.

I hope that we as a species will learn to appreciate each other and learn to respect each other for our differences and not fear that which is different in another person.

Go forth in peace and prosperity