HAPPY YET?

BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian

I bought an old book called Happiness by Hugh Black; it was published in 1911. That's 98 years ago. It was a really good book. I wondered why we haven't learned the lessons of happiness in all these years.

Another book by the same title, Happiness by William Lyon Phelps, published in 1927, also contains valuable ways to live. For example he says, "The principle of happiness should be like the principle of virtue; it should not be dependent on things, but be a part of personality." This puts happiness in its place, within the individual, not outside.

If almost 100 years is not enough time to look back, then let's look back 2,400 years. You remember Socrates, he said, "know thyself." He also talks a great deal about happiness. He wrote: "Not only is knowledge virtue, but virtue itself is identical with happiness, for a man who is doing what is right is doing that which is for his own good, resulting in happiness."

Socrates thought that life's highest good was happiness. He said: "Man pursues a great variety of goals, but the one he seeks as his ultimate end is happiness. Everything else is a means not an end." Money is only good for buying things, which gives people the outer feeling of happiness. Socrates said, "For, in a word, everything that we choose we choose for the sake of something else -- except happiness, which is an end in itself."

My point is that happiness is one of the most important and least understood values we have as a human race! It has been around for over 2,400 years but has not been understood. Take a look at any negative headline in the paper today. Someone kills another or a student in school does something terrible. We want so much to understand their reason for doing what they do. Do you want the reason? Unhappiness is the real reason.

We are living in a more positive and more proactive world. Personal responsibility is better understood. Happiness is being mastered for what it is, a cause, not an effect. We have lived with happiness as being the effect of something else for too long. Get up in the morning choosing to be happy; that cannot be taken away from you. Even if you found it, the effect it would have on you would be to make you unhappy. If the thing you have makes you happy, than the fear of losing it, and not wanting to lose it will make you unhappy.

Living with happiness, as a cause, rather than an effect, will give you everything you've dreamed of in life. I am talking about unconditional happiness. Become a thermostat, so you can control your own temperature. Most people are like a thermometer, allowing themselves to be affected by outside circumstances. Get up in the morning, use your decision to be happy as the cause of experiencing happiness for the day, and for the rest of your life. Where you put your attention is what you will experience. If your attention is on happiness it will expand, and you will experience it. Happiness can't happen when you place its source outside yourself, it must come from within.

People need to understand that they can be responsible for their own feelings. They have a choice to be happy or unhappy, regardless of what is happening in their life. Understanding this choice would positively impact the individual and the world would be better for it. Society is not teaching people the benefits of happiness, and it should be. Happiness should be in every school. The rewards of learning happiness would change the world.

Interested in living your life with happiness? You need to practice being happy. It is what you want; it is what you need. It is what the world needs right now, more than anything else. It's your choice. If you want to do good or be good...be happy. Not all good people are happy, but happy people are good, and they do a lot of good for others, because they are happy.

Are you happy yet? Be Smart, Be Happy! Your time has come! Welcome to the Happiness Zone!

Lionel Ketchian is the founder of the Happiness Club and can be reached at PrintLRK@aol.com. The website is www.HappinessClub.com.