The Secret of Happiness

So what is the secret of happiness?

Lets do some research...
According to psychology today there are four important traits of happy people:

I: Self-esteem: Happy People Like Themselves
II: Optimism: Happy People Are Hope-Filled
III: Extroversion: Happy People Are Outgoing
IV: Personal Control: Happy People Believe They Choose Their Destinies

Goals

Still alive this morning and what shall I do with the next 1/12775 part of my remaining life (i.e. today) and how will I judge at the end of today whether it was well spent or not? To answer this important question it is neccessary to set some goals and this, I suspect, is going to be difficult. When I look back, I somehow seem to have got to the age of forty-something without really having any specific goals. Let's start with some high-level goals and we can refine these and create some more-specific goals, objectives, targets and milestones later. Its sounding a bit like my annual appraisal process at work and perhaps I should give myself regular appraisals too!

So here goes...

1. To live forever
2. To be fit and healthy
3. To be happy

I thought there were going to be more but all the other ones I think of like "To have lots of good friends" are all really objectives to achieving one of these. I dont want to have lots of good friends just for the sake of it. The reason is because spending time with friends makes me happy. Running a marathon might help with goals #2 and possibly #3 but might conflicy with goal #1.

Time to go away and think about these and where better than on a jog.

Life!

I know what you're thinking "whats so clever about just being alive?" and of course you're right - as long as I remember to keep breathing it's like falling off a log and because it's so easy we take it for granted. If I was 95 or had an incurable illness or lived in Bagdad, then being alive wouldn't be so easy and I might wake up each morning and think - "I'm still alive".

How terrible to wait until it's nearly gone before appreciating life. It's like all the other things we take for granted and only appreciate after we lose them - like the people we love for example.

So that's what this blog is about - trying to remember each day how special it is to be alive and how fragile, precious and transient life is.