Learning Happiness

Eduardo Amorim / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

 One of life’s most important lessons is this:

We only have control over one thing and that is our own attitude.

That may sound like a small thing but it’s really a very big thing.

We can’t control what other people say or do. We can’t control how many red lights we get when we’re in a hurry, whether or not people are rude to us or whether we get what we want.

Does that mean we can’t be happy?

According to Lincoln, happiness is a choice.

Think about it. The happiest people aren’t always the people who are living the best lives.

They’re just the people with the best attitudes.

By the same token, the unhappiest people aren’t necessarily the people who have been dealt the worst hands. We’ve all probably met someone who moaned throughout their lives even though they are healthy, in a loving relationship and financially comfortable. Yet somehow, with everything going for them, they still manage to be unhappy.

In spite of all the things we can’t control, all the people we can’t control, we can choose on a daily basis how we are going to react to every single thing that happens to us.

We have to make a conscious decision to choose happiness each and every day. No matter what.

Even if we have health concerns.

Even if we have money problems.

Even if we are in the midst of major problems.

We can choose to stop and smell the roses. We can choose to notice the things- big and little – that went right in this day. We can choose to find something to be happy about.

You can be happy today. You just have to decide you’re going to.