Ray’s Daily
December 4, 2018
The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters.
Audrey Hepburn
I have come to believe that the difference between happiness and unhappiness is how we choose to live our lives. Too many folks seem to resign themselves to the fact that they will never be truly happy and do not see how they can change for the better.
The happy people I know are those who feel free to do things that give them pleasure. They appreciate what they have and share their joy with others. I seldom see them without a smile. I decided a long time ago I was not going to take life so seriously that I wouldn’t enjoy it. Here is an edited article that may help if you want more happiness in your life.
Want To Get Happier? Get Out Of Your Own Way
By Deirdre Maloney
Let’s get down to it. We all want to be happy. It feels good and it gives us energy and it makes us a lot more fun to be around.
#1: Embrace the Happiness Ratio – The first problem is that we often fail to recognize whether or not we’re happy in the first place. To get at this problem, consider the happiness ratio. This quick nugget of wisdom states that we must be happy in every part of our lives a minimum of 70% of the time.I came to this number after conducting research with plenty of happy and not-so-happy folks.
It’s a fair number, right? So write down the various components of your life and honestly assess where they fall. Notice which ones fall short of 70%. Notice which ones fall very short. It’s time to change them.
#2: Check Yourself on Your Stories – Change, I say? At first the word might feel liberating or energizing…until it doesn’t. Inherently, change means we’re changing from something we know to something we don’t.
We tell our stories to ourselves and to others with conviction. They feel untouchable, but in reality they’re excuses to stay stuck. They’re not real. Think about it. Other jobs pay good salaries. Toxic colleagues will find other friends.
Recognize that the unknown doesn’t have to be that scary. That you’re good enough to tackle anything. That you can keep going as long as it takes to get the happiness you deserve.
#3 Enough with the “Shoulds”! – Another barrier we put up against our own happiness is the sneaky should. Our shoulds begin right after birth. Often with the best of intentions, our parents and our friends and the media tell us how things should be. How we should be.
The problem is that we don’t see these shoulds as recommendations. Instead, we believe they are facts. They are statements about what is right and what is wrong.
Recognize the many shoulds delivered from others and yourself. They are not facts, so get rid of them. Find new beliefs that work for you and your happiness. Find others who agree.
#4 Quit the Self-Smack-Talk – One of the most common and maddening ways we get in the way of our own happiness – and it happens a lot when we are in the midst of change and insecure – is to talk smack about ourselves. We joke about our appearance or our age, our intellect or our abilities. Nothing is off limits.
We do this because we want to beat others to the punch, naming the perceived flaw before anyone else can. Or because we want to fill the conversation. Or because we think it’s funny.
It’s not. When we put ourself down to others—no matter how insignificant it might seem—we are disrespecting ourselves. Which means we are saying that we are not worthy of respect. Which is a pretty unhappy thing to do. Because we grow to believe that garbage. So stop it, please.
In the end……know this: You deserve to be as happy as possible as often as possible. In fact, you should be. Because it makes you better at everything you do. It makes you better at being with everyone else around you.
~~~
Happiness doesn’t depend on what we have, but it does depend on how we feel toward what we have. We can be happy with little and miserable with much.
William D. Hoard
~~~
Aaron is telling his friends about his recent divorce.
“Yes, it’s true. Sylvia divorced me for religious reasons. She worshipped money and I didn’t have any.”
~~~
At a dinner party to introduce the new Administrator of the State Highway, everybody’s new boss went on and on extolling his own virtues, forward-thinking, the modernization he’d put in place, the downsizing, equipment upgrades, roadway improvements he had both instituted and planned for the future while he was with the Pennsylvania Dept of Transportation.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, he opened the floor for questions.
“Sir,” said a voice from the back of the room, “perhaps you’d also tell us why they fired you.”
~~~
A backward poet writes inverse.
~~~
Dear Mr. Bill Collector:
I have not opened the bills that you sent me because I saw some white Powder on the envelope. I fear that it may be anthrax. I am sorry that your Payment will be late. Until the president says that it is safe to open my mail, I have no idea what to pay you.
Sincerely,
I-O-U
~~~
“A keen sense of humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected, and outlast the unbearable.”
Billy Graham
~~~
Little Johnny was staying with his grandmother for a few days. He’d been playing outside for a while when he came into the house and asked her, “Grandma, what is it called when people are sleeping on top of each other?”
She was a little taken aback, but decided to tell him the truth. “It’s called sexual intercourse, darling.”
Little Johnny just said, “OK” and went back outside to play.
A few minutes later he came back in and said angrily, “Grandpa said, it is not called sexual intercourse! It’s called bunk beds!”
~~~
“I like to drive with my knees. Otherwise, how can I put on my lipstick and talk on the phone?”
Sharon Stone
~~~
An elderly Jewish man is struck by a car and brought to the local hospital. A pretty nurse tucks him into bed and says, “Mr. Epstein, are you comfortable?”
Epstein replies, “I make a nice living.”
~~~
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
John Lennon
~~~
Ray Mitchell
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
Ray’s Daily has been sent for more than fifteen years to people who want to start their day on an upbeat. If you have system overload because of our daily clutter, let me know and I will send you the information via mental telepathy. If you have not been getting our daily you can request to be added by e-mailing me at raykiwsp@gmail.com. Back issues are posted at http://rays-daily,com/ currently there are more than 2000 readers from around the world.
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