The key to happiness is both simple
and complex. It is the sum
total of more than 2,000 years of
philosophy, psychology, speculation,
and discussion about the meanings
and sources of happiness. From
Aristotle in 340 B.C. through to the
modern thinkers, speakers, and writers
of today, this key to happiness has
hardly changed. It is the same for virtually
all men and women in every
country and all walks of life.
The key to happiness is this:
Dedicate yourself to the development
of your natural talents and
abilities by doing what you love
to do, and doing it better and better
in the service of a cause that
is greater than yourself.
This is a big statement and a
big commitment. Being happy
requires that you define your
life in your own terms and then throw
your whole heart into living your life
to the fullest. In a way, happiness
requires that you be perfectly selfish in
order to develop yourself to a point
where you can be unselfish for the rest
of your life.
YOUR HAPPINESS MUST COME FIRST
In Edmond Rostand’s Play Cyrano de
Bergerac, Cyrano is asked why he is so
intensely individualistic and unconcerned with the opinions and judgments
of others. He replies with these wonderful
words: “I am what I am because early
in life I decided that I would please at
least myself in all things.”
Your happiness likewise depends
upon your ability to please at least yourself
in all things. However, most people
are reluctant to use their own happiness
as the standard by which to judge the
events in their lives. This is primarily
because we let others define or affect
what brings us happiness. And we often
believe it is more important to make
other people happy than it is to make
ourselves happy. This is nonsense.
Human beings are happiness-driven
organisms. Everything we do in life is
oriented toward maintaining and
increasing our level of happiness. We
are psychologically constructed so that
it is impossible for us to be any other
way without making ourselves mentally
and emotionally ill. The fact is that you
can’t give away to anyone else what you
don’t have for yourself. Just as you can’t give money to the poor if you don’t
have any, you can’t make someone else
happy if you yourself are miserable.
The very best way to assure the happiness
of others is to be happy yourself
and then to share your happiness with
them. Suffering and self-sacrifice merely
depress and discourage other people.
If you want to make others happy, start
by living the kind of life and doing the
kinds of things that make you happy.
LET HAPPINESS BE YOUR GUIDE
Make happiness the organizing
principle of your life. That is,
compare every possible action
and decision against your standard
of happiness to see whether
it would make you happier or
unhappier. Soon, you will discover
that almost all the problems
in your life come from choices that
you have made — or are currently making
— that do not contribute to your
happiness.
There will of course be countless
times when you will have to do little
things that don’t make you happy in
pursuit of your larger happiness.
However, as Earl Nightingale said,
“Happiness is the progressive realization
of a worthy ideal.” You feel really
happy only when you are moving, stepby-
step, toward the accomplishment of clearly defined goals that you feel will
enhance the quality of your happiness.
Since you can’t be truly happy until
you are clear about your inherent possibilities,
it’s important that you take
some time on a regular basis to analyze
yourself and identify your strengths
and weaknesses. There is an old saying,
“Success leaves tracks.” You can
look back on your life and identify
who you really are and what you
should be doing with your life. One of
the best ways to do this is to constantly
ask yourself this powerful question:
“WHAT ONE GREAT THING WOULD I
DARE TO DREAM IF I KNEW I COULD
NOT FAIL?”
Imagine that you are absolutely
guaranteed success in the pursuit of a
particular goal, big or small, shortterm
or long-term. Imagine that you
have all the money, all the time, all the
education, all the contacts, all the
resources, and everything else that you
could possibly need to achieve any
one big goal in life. What would it be?
This is a very important question
because when you remove the limitation
from your thinking, you often get
a very clear idea of exactly what you
should be doing with your life. Your
greatest dream is an indication of your
natural abilities and of what is really
important to you.
All successful men and women are
big dreamers. They imagine what their
fortune could be, ideal in every respect,
and then they work every day toward
their distant vision, goal or purpose.
Step-by-step realization of their ideal
makes them genuinely happy.
LIFE’S 4 CATEGORIES
Dr. Viktor Frankl, who wrote the
book Man’s Search for Meaning, said that you can divide the thing you do in
life into four categories. The first category
consists of the things that are
hard to learn and hard to do. An example
for many people is mathematics.
Many of us struggled with math in
school and still struggle with bookkeeping,
accounting, financial statements,
and tax returns as adults. If you
find mathematics hard to learn and
hard to do, this is the sort of activity
for which you are clearly unsuited. No
matter how much of it you do, or how
good you get at it, you will never
achieve any lasting satisfaction or happiness
from it.
The next category consists of things
that are hard to learn but easy to do.
Riding a bicycle, driving a car, and
tying your shoes are hard to learn but
easy to do once you’ve practiced
enough. These are seldom the sort of
activities that cause you to feel terrific
about yourself when you engage in
them. They do not demand your best.
The third category consists of things
that are easy to learn but hard to do.
Physical labor falls into this category.
Digging a ditch with a shovel and
chopping wood with an ax are easy to
learn but they are hard to do, and
never get any easier.
The fourth category is the key.
These are things that are easy to learn
and easy to do. You seem to have a natural
proclivity for them. When you are
engaged in this sort of activity, time
flies. The things that are easy for you
to learn and do are the sort of things
that you should be doing with your
life. They indicate where your natural
talents and abilities lie. Engaging in
these activities with your whole heart,
and committing yourself to become
better and better, will give you all the
joy, satisfaction, and happiness you
could want in life.
HAPPINESS IS NOT AN ACCIDENT
Everyone has an area of excellence.
Everyone has something that he or she
can do in an outstanding fashion. It
may take weeks, months, or even years
for you to develop yourself in that area
so that you can really perform in an
extraordinary fashion, but you will be
strongly attracted to that sort of activity
from the beginning. You will enjoy
reading about it and talking about it
and thinking about it. You will find
yourself admiring people who are outstanding
in that area. You will look
longingly at that field and wonder
what it would be like to be in it and to
be successful at it. That is very often
your heart’s desire. That area of activity
where you can become excellent is
probably what you were put on this
earth to do.
So resolve to persist until you succeed.
The first part of courage is the
resolve to launch in faith toward your
objectives; the second part is your
willingness to endure in the face of the
inevitable disappointments and setbacks
you will encounter on the road.
Happiness is not an accident.
Happy people are those who deliberately
do the things that invariably lead
to happiness. Happy people are those
who know what they want and then
throw their whole hearts into using
their unique talents and abilities to
make a contribution to the world in
the achievement of their goals.
You are put on this earth with a
special purpose, programmed with
unique talents and abilities that have
not yet been fully tapped and utilized.
When you focus all your energies
on unlocking your true potential,
you can claim your ultimate
birthright: happiness.
Learn more about Brian Tracy and his wealth of books and audio programs.
