I'll Be Happy When....

Wayne Dyer said, "There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way." In Dan Millman's book, "Way of the Peaceful Warrior," Socrates said, "A fool is 'happy' when his cravings are satisfied. A warrior is happy without reason. That's what makes happiness the ultimate discipline-above all else I have taught you. Happiness is not just something you feel-it is who you are."

I'll be happy when... Whether we make such a statement aloud or to ourselves, we impose a limitation on our human experience, an experience that has a finite amount of time attached to it. Perhaps the wording is confusing us. What if "happy" is not really the word we are thinking or feeling? What if we mean, I'll be relieved when... or, I'll feel more secure when...?

Perhaps what we might do is make sure we're using the right word. If another word is more appropriate or accurate, this frees us to be...Happy...because our ability to be happy is no longer influenced by the statement. Let me add that in life coaching, we would ask someone what they hoped to feel once something happened. Then we would ask, "What stops you from feeling that way now?" We can choose to feel a certain way in any moment.

A commonly-held belief, supported by quantum mechanics (I won't go into that) is that what we focus our thoughts on is what we attract to us. That belief has been enhanced, and accurately so, by adding, What we feel at our deepest level is what we pull to us. If you choose to find a way to feel happy more often than not, according to this belief, you'll attract more people and circumstances that support your choice.

A wonderful few-minute inspirational message can be viewed online at www.thedashmovie.com. It addresses that a tombstone lists the date of birth and date of death; but that between the two is a dash. That, "What matters is how we spend our dash." Accomplishments are great. Some of them even benefit others in important ways. However, what we feel about how we experience our dash should be our ultimate goal because this can guide us in our actions and choices.

Ask yourself if you are willing to be happy without reason? What might your life look like if you make this choice?