The Fine Art Of Being Happy In A Fucked Up World

The majority of my blogging tends to be instructional or experiential as opposed to intentionally inspirational.

There’s no really specific reason for this. It’s just the way things happen around here. It’s all based on my belief that I know what I know and that’s all I really have any credibility trying to communicate.

But one thing I know a lot about, that I seldom if ever write about, is being happy. Because all things considered, I am a pretty happy guy.

I have a wonderful wife who mysteriously loves me. A family who feels the same and a couple of really good friends who I stay in touch with wherever I am living.

I have had the good fortune to be fairly healthy despite a godawful diet consisting of way too many carbs and a genetic affliction called tic syndrome.

I have had a couple of very interesting careers which I loved and and proudly boast that I have never actually worked a day in my life because I have always done work that I love doing, and therefore do not consider it work.

I have always made time to write about whatever was on my mind and it’s turned into a dozen screenplays, an awkwardly structured novel, close to 400 fully developed lyrics, a couple of volumes of free verse and more than a thousand posts like this.

And while this may look like a top line inventory of my life, what it really is, in total, is my secret to happiness.

Decisions Decisions.

Most people are unhappy, not because of bad decisions they have made, but because once they realized that the decisions were bad they didn’t get their shit together and do something about it.

Henry David Thoreau summed it up perfectly when he postulated that “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”. And while everybody knows that famous line, hardly anybody knows the rest of the passage that follows it…

“From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”

If you think about this carefully enough you will see, not only where my philosophy of happiness comes from, but where everyone’s should.

The quiet desperation comes from the propensity that people have to accept that work and play are separate and distinct and doing one earns you the right to do the other.

You can call me lucky if you like, but early on in my life I discovered that the two were not separate and distinct from each other but really complementary elements of the human experience.

Work should be play. Play should be fun. Therefore work should be fun.

Of Course, There Is Always Reality.

Having said that, and having had the good fortune to have spent pretty much my entire life living that way, I’m sure a lot of people are rolling their eyes and thinking this is crazy. How can I possibly pull off shit like that?

Well, my friends, it really does come down to your attitude. Because if you had just switched gears in your mind and said to yourself….yeah, I can do that, you would be at least half way there.

Finding the things that you love to do, the things that make you feel fulfilled and happy and then figuring out how to turn that into an occupation is what happiness in this life, in this culture, in this time, is really all about.

And I don’t give a shit if you think that’s a daunting task. We face daunting tasks every day, just putting up with all the crap around us without going insane.

Finding what makes you happy, and monetizing it is relatively easy next to dealing with all the other junk.

I never went looking for writing as a passion and a career. It found me one winter’s day walking down the street in Fort Erie Ontario when I heard a song called ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ by Bob Dylan.

Hearing that song. Listening to those words. Feeling the power of them rocked my little world back then. And that changed everything.

The very next day, I was an aspiring writer. And still am. Only difference is, I made a career out of it and that career has rewarded me with the most precious thing on earth...time.

Open Yourself To Inspiration

Finding your thing is not easy. But it’s not impossible, because I believe that everyone has one. Those who aren’t living it yet are simply the ones who haven’t found the right inspiration.

Someone very close to me has recently gone though this inspiration and it’s changing his life. And because I know him well, I know he will pull this off. Maybe not tomorrow afternoon, but soon. Because he is motoring along on the fuel of inspiration that has turned a pastime into a passion and that passion will eventually turn into a career that gives him joy.

Bottom Line

If you want to be happy. If you want to rise above all the petty bullshit that life sticks in your way. If you want to truly be engaged in something you love, the first thing you have to do it accept the fact that you can change whatever situation you are in. That you can find your passion and work it into something truly meaningful.

You can. And because you want to, you will. Honest...that’s how it worked for me. And I sincerely believe that’s how it can work for everyone.

Jim lives in St Catharines Ontario (AKA The Quiet Side Of The Lake) and is currently a partner at Bullet Proof Consulting. www.bulletproofconsulting.ca

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