How To Be Happy
Posted on 14 July 2008
I posted this some while ago or more accurately a previous version. I keep looking at it from time to time and make tweaks here and there but now I’m happy that it is finished. Oh no! If finishing has made me happy that means finishing stuff should be on the list and it’s not. Damn its hide!
Anyway, I’m going to go with it as it is otherwise I’d be here for ever and you’d have wondered off to check out YouTube for videos of pandas directing traffic, monkeys typing dissertations on the demise of the Greek tragedy or maybe even a politician making some sort of sense. I know, I know the last one is ridiculous in this climate of Machiavellian political insanity, but I’m an eternal optimist.
This is my take on being happy from my own observations and stuff I have read and then shamelessly stolen from fairly well known people like Buddha. But before you send the Plagiarism Police to beat me with their rubber nightsticks and make me watch Gladiators. I really don’t want to keep this to myself. Actually I guess that is pretty obvious seeing as I am posting on something that starts with World Wide and then finishes with Web but I’m sure you know what I mean. Please feel free to copy this, forward it, play about with it, change it, eat it for all I care. As long as together we can save the life of just one cute puppy dog then my work will have been worthwhile.
If you can do most of the things listed below then not only will you never need to hire a life coach like me but you’ll probably also get canonized at some time in the future too. Good luck with that one. Now don’t hang around here looking vacant, be happy!
Ask more questions, not the same questions more often
Recognize you can be whatever you desire to be
Know that performance does not equal identity
Realize that you are the equal of everybody
Realize that you are the better of nobody
Appreciate you did the best you could
Face the future, live for the moment
Understand suffering is part of life
Accept you will make mistakes
Breathe from your diaphragm
Smile when things get tough
Always be kind to yourself
Think before your answer
Visualize Your Success
Take time for yourself
Make time for others
Listen with interest
Suspend disbelief
Embrace change
Still Your Mind
Be curious
Exercise
Laugh
Love
Cry
Be
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Comment by Amanda Linehan on 14 July 2008:
“Be” should be at the top of the list :) (Although, I guess then the funnel shape wouldn’t really work out. ;) )
Comment by Laurie on 14 July 2008:
Wow! Super! Now I know why you had to play around with it a bit. Your intro cracked me up. I think two of the things that stirred my happiness was realizing I could actually live my desires with passion and be ok with who I am.
Comment by RJ on 15 July 2008:
“Smile when things get tough”
As an extension of the above I offer a William James quote: “We don’t laugh because we’re happy, we’re happy because we laugh.”
Brilliant Tim :)
Comment by Evelyn Lim | Attraction Mind Map on 15 July 2008:
Oh my…these lines are simply fantastic! You are at your creative best! Is there some contest that you can submit this too?
Love it! Stumbled!
Evelyn
Comment by Tim Brownson on 15 July 2008:
@ Amanda - Yeh, you gotta have be at the bottom. That funnel took me hours to do! I’m very attached to that funnel although I guess I could flip it over and make it a bell. Never considered that before.
@ Laurie - Livfing with desires and passion is what it’s all about imho and glad you’re now doing that.
@ RJ - There’s some great quotes by William James and I love the story about him doing the keynote speech at some major psychology shindig. The talk of what he was going to say went on for weeks and people traveled in from all over the country only for him to get up, say: The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude, and then leave.
Didn’t James also say “We don’t run because we are frightened, we are frightened because we run? Or something similar.
@ Evelyn - Thanks for the compliment, but I’m not really a competition kind of guy. Thanks for the Stumble.
Comment by Kavita on 15 July 2008:
Very beautiful words, and beautifully written article….Cheers.
Comment by Lisa on 15 July 2008:
Hi Tim, great piece of work!
LMaxwell here, took note of your comment last time, so here we go first name basis!
I would add ’smell the roses more’ and take friendship vitamins - B1
Comment by nivas on 15 July 2008:
Brilliant Work Tim..
Ma favourites
“Ask more questions, not the same questions more often.
Recognize you can be whatever you desire to be”
I think i am getting to know a lot about power of questions today
today one of ma friend told me instinctively,
“It doesn’t matter if you don have all the answers..what truely matters is,do you have right questions?”
Comment by Dr. KC/DOCintheBiz on 15 July 2008:
This article is so brilliant! I love to just look at it. LOL! How did you do that with the visual imagery? That must have taken some time!
Subject matter doesn’t hurt either! Everyone should heed these suggestions!
Dr. KC
Comment by Tim Brownson on 15 July 2008:
@ Kavita - Thanks a lot for that.
@ Lisa - That’s better, good to be on first name terms. I really like the smell the roses suggestion that’s not really covered. I feel an tinkering coming on ;-) Does B1 do that??
@ Nivas - Agreed 100%, great questions are so powerful and so underrated it seems. Thanks for your comment.
@ Dr KC - It wasn’t like that originally, it was just a list and then I started ordering them and hey presto! It just popped out at me. I did spend some time adapting and playing around to fit everything. I wanted to finish with 1 letter but was struggling. Maybe ? to signify Question everything? or even Y signify Why are we here. I think I’d better stop now because I’m disappearing up my own rear end - lol
Comment by Tom Volkar - Delightful Work on 15 July 2008:
I used to like you before you slammed Gladiators. :)
Is be your wild-ass self on your list or something like it? Seriously Tim, thanks for the creative gift.
Comment by Ali on 15 July 2008:
Beautiful piece (poem?), Tim, I’d love to see it on a poster or mug … it’s quite a different style to what I’m used to from you ;-) but I absolutely love it.
I think the time spent on it was well-invested!
Ali
Comment by Lisa on 15 July 2008:
Yeah Tim, B1 -’be one’(LOL)
Comment by Tim Brownson on 15 July 2008:
@ Tom - Nooooo, not you! Tell me you don’t really like Gladiators, pleeeease. Actually this time last year I was slamming American Idol and then I started watching the last series. I’m so fickle ;-)
@ Ali - Actually yeh, I;d love to see it on a poster too! Do we know any arty types?
@ Lisa - I feel so foolish now ;-)
Comment by Vered on 16 July 2008:
“Know that performance does not equal identity” - yet modern society tells us that it does. I do agree with you. Just saying that it’s completely opposed to everything we are taught from a very young age.
Comment by Tom Volkar / Delightful Work on 16 July 2008:
Tim no worries, I agree the TV show Gladiators sucks. I thought you were making fun of the movie Gladiator with Russel Crowe.
Comment by Proof Positivity on 16 July 2008:
Wonderful post and I love the visual eye candy as well.
Comment by Tim Brownson on 16 July 2008:
@ Vered - Hmm, not sure if it does tell us that directly or whether it’s just by implication. You could be right on reflection and how sad that is if it’s true.
@ Tom - Ok Tom, that’s a lot more palatable. Still preferred Russel Crowe in L.A. Confidential though.
@ Proof Positive - Thanks for stopping by and I like what you’re doing at your own blog, inspiring stuff.
Comment by Shun Jian | RichGrad.com on 18 July 2008:
Awesome!
I wrote a post on happiness not too long back… It’s about 10 secrets I learnt from Andrew Matthews.
You may like to check it out:
http://richgrad.com/10-secrets-to-happiness-i-learnt-from-andrew-matthews/
Comment by paresh on 19 July 2008:
nice list, thanks for sharing.
Comment by Cath Lawson on 21 July 2008:
Hi Tim - these are great tips. I keep forgetting that you do accept comments on your blog now - sorry.
I would also add that if you do need to get happy pills from the doctors for some medical reason - definitely get them. And they will help you to do all the other things on the list.
Comment by Tim Brownson on 21 July 2008:
@ Cath - I agree, sometimes people need an initial help in hand and as long as they use the window of opportunity when they are on medication to make changes, then it’s not a bad thing at all imho. My worry is that some people see the pills as the solution and that change isn’t necessary and I’m not at all sure I like THAT idea.
Comment by Thomas Johnson on 28 July 2008:
Nice idea with the shaped words. Good choice of words too!
Comment by Tim Brownson on 29 July 2008:
@ Thomas - Thanks for commenting. BTW, the link back to your site doesn’t work but it’s here for anybody that wants to check it out. http://ourdevelopment.org/
Great blog by the way and the best of luck with what you are doing a very worth while cause that I’d encourage anybody to check out!
Comment by Barbara on 30 July 2008:
I love how the point is “BE” because after all just being…. you IS happiness :) great post and site.
Barbara
http://www.theyoumovement.com
Comment by Samantha on 25 September 2008:
Alright Tim, I printed that list out, because as it turns out all this time I thought I was a pretty happy person, possibly a little morbidly so but happy none the less and here I’m finding out through my surroundings that I was in fact so very wrong.
So as easy reminders of little helpful hint’s for the day I printed this and some other high lighted information and will probably use my artsy craft to make some obscene bright statement with it on my wall that will be impossible to ignore.
^_^ This should be effective.
Comment by Tim Brownson on 25 September 2008:
@ Barbara - Really sorry I missed your comment, not sure how tha happened and thanks a lot for dropping by.
@ Samantha - Brilliant stuff! I’m sure you weren’t that wrong btw, there’s a lot of stuff on there that many of us fail to do and yet remain fairly happy with life.