Page 145 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

102. Experiment with happiness

We were born to be happy.

The spiritual leader Poonjaji once said, “Happiness is permanent. It is
always there. What comes and goes is unhappiness. If you identify with what
comes and goes, you will be unhappy. If you identify with what is permanent

and always there, you are happiness itself.”

We add worries, fears, beliefs, and dark visions born of passivity to our
happiness. We create a burden. If we want to find what’s really at the heart of
things (happiness), we’ve only to laugh, dance or sing…. OR: work at one single
purposeful piece of work long enough (without distraction) until the light shines.

People believe there is some generalized state of mind called happiness that
they must find a way to achieve. So they begin arranging outside circumstances
to match up with a vision of happiness they might have. They get a spouse and a
house. A dog and a baby. A job and a car. They keep adding circumstance on
circumstance. Soon it’s a boat and a second home. Why a boat and a second
home? Because the car and the first home didn’t do it. It didn’t make them feel

generalized, consistent happiness.

Then one day a storm hits the town and the house across the street has a
giant tree fall on it. Children are trapped inside, and you race across the street,
crawl into the wreckage, and pull a child to safety. As you sit on the lawn
receiving hugs from the mother and father of the child, you are happier than you
have ever been. Why can’t you use that memory to find the true nature of
happiness? Why are you, two weeks later, looking for a new house, a new
spouse, a new car, or a new counter top?

I once wondered what work I should do. I had been in the world of
advertising, writing ads and commercials, but I lost my job when the company
went under. What is my true calling? I wondered. What is my real work? I
decided to take a long walk and think about my past. When was I happiest? Most
excited? Most lit up? When could I say that I was really on fire?

One night during my recovery from addiction, the answer came. I was at a
large meeting hall and they asked me to be the speaker. Who, me? I wasn’t at all
prepared. And I also had the flu. So I felt awful. I also had a huge fear of public
speaking. A bad mix of circumstances. I said no.