BEING HUMAN MEANS A SIMPLE LIFE WITH GOOD FAITH AND ACTION
Circumstances are not what makes us happy
or unhappy.
Think about it: if money was
enough to make us happy, there should be a
lot of people walking around saying, “Wow,
thank God I got that last raise! Now I have
enough money, and I am happy!” Yet I’ve
never heard anyone say that. Most rich people
seem to be quite unhappy, in fact. If fortune or
fame worked, you would never see movie stars
and rock musicians with drug problems—they’d
be too happy to be interested in drugs.
Similarly, possessions do not cause happiness.
If they did, wouldn’t we be happy by now? I,
for one, have bought a lot of awesome things,
but the only ones that have made a long-term
difference are the ones that are involved in
doing something: my spinning wheel, my
kayak, my convertible. The things themselves
don’t matter much, but doing fun things with
them adds joy to my life.
Another thing that won’t make you happy is
whitewashing over reality and feeding yourself
a lot of bogus affirmations that you know
aren’t true. Any philosophy that requires you
to deny reality is a false path. In fact, studies
have shown that insincerity is every bit as bad
for your heart as anger.6 Your body feels the
tension between the truth and the way you’re
acting, and finds it very destructive. It’s
important to look for the good in a situation,
but it’s even more important to be real.
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