Ray’s Daily
March 27, 2020
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
Aristotle
It is Friday and there is nothing to report. Nancy and I continue our isolated living watching television and napping. I am going to get a Daily from better days today. Stay well and I will see you Monday.
Ray’s Daily first published on March 27, 2014
I am generally a happy person and am glad that I seem to have developed a life that is pretty good. What I can’t understand are the folks I meet who seem unhappy most of the time. Many of these people don’t really want to be that way they just don’t seem to know how to change. In my experience happiness can be contagious but since few happy people hang around those who are always complaining about their plight not much happiness rubs off on the people who need help.
Fortunately, all is not lost for it is never too late to discover how to be happy. A while ago I was sent a copy of an article written by Angel Chernoff that reported on the characteristics of happy people, the content may help someone to start on the path to more joy in their life. Here is a shortened version of what she wrote:
7 Sexy Character Traits of Happy People
- Moral Courage – Happy people stand up for what’s right and don’t get pushed around by peer pressure into the newest fad or trend. They have the courage, conviction and inner strength to do what’s right even while others reshape themselves into ever-shifting expressions of someone else’s standards, becoming shadows of other’s values.
- Self-Confidence – Happiness requires a degree of confidence that allows us to believe we have value, that we are worthy of love and friendship and success. Happy people have faith in themselves and in their ability to develop the skills and qualities needed to become highly competent at living life well.
Keep in mind, though, that it’s not the pseudo-confidence that hides insecurities under cocky exteriors that shout their accomplishments and exaggerate their strengths and experiences. It’s a humble self-acceptance and self-love that genuinely feels comfortable in their own skin.
- Thoughtfulness – They say nice people finish last, but that’s just not true. As a matter of fact, jerks are never completely trusted or respected by people who respect themselves. Happy people are thoughtful people. They consider the needs of others. Making a difference, in fact, takes center stage in their lives; it’s an important part of their self-identity.
- Passion – Happiness at its highest level includes living a life of passion and purpose. Happy lives are directed lives, pointed at something deeply meaningful. The happiest amongst us are excited about living because every day offers them another opportunity to do what they love, because truly passionate people have many interests, they are rarely bored, adrift or indolent.
- Self-Responsible – Have you ever met a happy person who regularly evades responsibility, blames and points fingers and makes excuses for their unsatisfying lives? Me either. Happy people accept responsibility for how their lives unfold. They believe their own happiness is a byproduct of their own thinking, beliefs, attitudes, character and behavior.
- Honest – Liars hide from the truth. They lack the courage to stand up to the reality of their lives. They hide behind words and camouflage – their hidden agenda behind a web of stories and verbal slights of hand. Happy people don’t live that way. Honesty is a hallmark of the happiest amongst us. It is also a characteristic of the dangerously sexy.
- Self-accepting – Happy people are authentic. They are real and know who they are and what they like. They are in touch with their feelings and spend time learning and growing and developing. Self-accepting people may forgive themselves of their own shortcomings, but they don’t excuse them.
They look their weaknesses square in the eye, accept them as they are, then go to work growing and improving and transforming them into strengths. Self-acceptance is never used as an excuse for stagnation or laziness or apathy by the truly self-accepting.
~~~
“So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?”
Hunter S. Thompson
~~~
The Rosenthals had an outstandingly happy and successful marriage, and Mr. Rosenthal was once asked to what he attributed this remarkable situation.
“It’s simple,” he said. “Division of labor. My wife makes all the small, routine decisions. She decides what house we buy, where we go on vacation, whether the kids go to private schools, if I should change my job, and so on.”
“And you?”
“I make the big, fundamental decisions. I decide if the United States should declare war on China, if Congress should appropriate money for a manned expedition to Mars, and so on.”
~~~
If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
~~~
A hospital posted a notice in the nurses’ lounge saying:
“Remember, the first five minutes of a human being’s life are the most dangerous.”
Underneath, a nurse had written:
“The last five are pretty risky, too.”
~~~
The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.
~~~
A big-game hunter went on safari with his wife and mother-in-law. One evening, while still deep in the jungle, the Mrs awoke to find her mother gone. Rushing to her husband, she insisted on them both trying to find her mother.
The hunter picked up his rifle, took a swig of whiskey, and started to look for her. In a clearing not far from the camp, they came upon a chilling sight: the mother-in-law was backed up against a thick, impenetrable bush, and a large male lion stood facing her.
The wife cried, “What are we going to do?”
“Nothing,” said the hunter husband. “The lion got himself into this mess, let him get himself out of it.”
~~~
“He had delusions of adequacy.”
Walter Kerr
~~~
The teacher was giving her second grade students a lesson in science. She had explained about magnets and showed how they would pick up nails and other bits of iron.
Now, it was question time and she asked, “My name begins with the letter M and I pick up things. What am I?”
A little boy in the front row said, “You’re a mother.”
~~~
“Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.”
Steve Maraboli
~~~
Ray Mitchell
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
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Comments on: "Happy?" (1)
that it is!