Happiness, Health, Wisdom and Wealth ^™

Happiness

Happiness is the most important thing in your life. We don't mean hedonism, or indulgence; in fact, those things would likely serve to undermine your happiness. True happiness requires goodness, kindness, discipline, and good planning. Our definition of happiness is: "Happiness – a state of being measuring the overall ability of the emotions to react favorably to challenges." Happiness is not about what happens to you in life but how you react to what happens to you in life.

So how can happiness be the most important thing in your life? What about health? Or family? Or friends? Or _insert_whatever_? How could I be happy without them? Is it possible that anyone has ever been happy without that? If they could be maybe you could be. But let's ignore that for a moment and consider this; what if you could be completely happy without that. If you really were completely happy would you need anything else? There is nothing else you could say that about. What if you had perfect health but were unhappy? What if you were wiser than Solomon but were unhappy? What if you were as rich as you can imagine, but were unhappy? Having those things and not being happy is not enough. Only being happy is enough. That's why happiness is the most important thing in your life.

Why do we pursue position, or fame, or money? We pursue them as a means to an end; we think that if we have them we will be happy. But they don't make us happy! Where do these silly ideas come from? Why would we think that money would make us happy any more than dancing lessons would make us better readers? They are not related. If you want to get better at reading you need to work on reading not dancing. If you want to be happier, focus on being happy not on something else that you think may make you happy.