Happiness.

It’s what we all want, right? I mean, it’s the single most reason why anyone does anything. We all have different things that help get us up that big old happy hill, but if you stop to think about it, nearly every choice we make is, in the ultimate end, to achieve happiness.

We want to fall in love because love makes us feel good. It makes us happy. Some of us go shopping because having nice things makes us happy. We work so we can make more money, but the reason we want to make more money is so that we can alleviate financial stress and enjoy life more, thus bringing us happiness. And some of us sell everything we own so we can get on a boat and sail around to far off places because that makes us happy.

One thing I’ve found though, is that when others are happy, some people tend to let the snarkster monster take over and sort of condemn the ones who are living their dreams. I know, I know. Most of it stems from their own envy or lack of happiness with their own life, but that attitude is just so… counterproductive.

For instance, I follow another financial blog of a guy who happens to have made a success out of blogging. He makes 6 figures a year (yes, by blogging!) and he posted the other day about someone who made the comment (after he may have ranted about something on his blog), “What are you complaining about – you’re rich!”  A friend of mind who has a great sailing blog often gets “haters”.  One time I had a friend girl tell me that by moving onto a boat and just taking off, I was “forgetting my roots” and “being selfish and irresponsible”, and that if I ever decided to come back, I would find myself alone and abandoned by the friends that I had chosen to abandon.  WHOA. Excuse me?

I guess I just don’t understand that mentality. Even when I’ve gone down the crappy roads in life, I never tried to bring others along for the ride. No matter what, I have always celebrated the successes of my friends and even strangers. I’m almost ridiculous about it. I mean if someone says, “Oh, I cannot stand Taylor Swift – she is a horrible singer!”, I will likely say, “Well, she’s doing what makes her happy and I’m happy for her.”  (you can insert any celebrity in the above whether I like their music/movies, etc. or not… I just chose T.S. as my example – and I must admit that her music is one of my guilty pleasures!)

There’s an ancient Tibetan Buddhist blessing that goes:

May you be happy. May you be well. May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.

Several years back, I was told about practicing an exercise with everyone you meet or even people you pass on the street. Basically everyone you see, you look them in the eye and in your mind, you wish them happiness…from the heart, sincere. A simple, “may you be happy”. You would not believe how much this one little practice opened my eyes and changed my entire outlook, which was pretty positive to begin with!  I started empathizing with the struggles of others more and in turn it made me realize that my own struggles might not be so bad. I became happier simply by wishing happiness upon others. It was truly an awakening experience.

Don’t get me wrong. I still struggle with my attitude sometimes – I mean, we’re all human so it’s hard not to keep ugly emotions like jealousy, resentment, envy, and fear in check all the time, but I promise you that no matter what kind of financial epiphanies I may stumble upon and share with you… no matter what my travels or the pretty photos I post may inspire you to do, I believe that this will be the most valuable thing I could share with you. Hands down. Because if you practice happiness for others, you will open the doors for your own happiness. Not to mention that this attitude is infectious, so others will also want good things for you, and besides… positive people are just more fun to be around.

So, in closing…

May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.