The Secret to Being Happy In Life

The Secret to Being Happy In Life

LieutenantBoyd_003It’s time to rediscover who you are.  It’s the secret to life, the universe, and everything, and I can tell you now the answer is not 42.

Right, and you think you know who you are. You don’t know anything, and I’ll tell you why it’s time for a quiet sit with a nice cup of tea and a rethink.  Got your tea?  Oh, you don’t drink tea.  Time to start.  Do yourself a favor and pick out a nice orange pekoe, they call it Constant Comment at the supermarket.  Go get some, come back, brew the tea, pour a cup, then come back here.

Have a careful sip, it’s hot.

Now where were we?  Oh, yes.  Rethinking.

You know that thing you’ve been telling yourself?  I’ll do this or that when the time is right, I have to wait for things to get better, I’ll be able to make my stand then, well guess what??  That day is never going to happen. Quite a shock, I know.  But trust me on this, it’s never going to happen.

You’re never going to be smarter than you are now.  You might be wiser later, or you might not be.  But the important thing is that whatever you’re hoping to be able to do, now is the time to start doing it.  If you want to go open a restaurant, it’s time to start not only thinking about recipes, but making a business plan and finding out what it takes to do it.  Want to paint, but don’t know how to draw?  It’s time for the foundations – go take life drawing, color is nothing more than a wet pencil with tint.  Trust me on that one.  Want to act?  Time to start dreaming, not stop – but do it with your eyes open.

Have you ever felt like there is a big secret to life and that everyone knows it but you and that nobody’s talking?  I’m talking, and I’m going to tell you what it is:  no matter what it is you want to do with your life, no matter what it is you want to become, it’s a solvable problem.  You can solve it in tiny bits and pieces, but it’s up to you to figure out what problems you have to solve and what doesn’t help you move forward, and that’s a very very easy test.  Think of something you think might help you.  Then think about how that’s going to move you closer to your dream, and if it isn’t, don’t do that right now.  Move on to the next thing.  And if you don’t know what to do, make a list of all the things you don’t know, write them down, and start asking  questions of people who know more than you.  Amazingly, most people who know more than you do are anxious to pass on their knowledge.  It’s a sign to them that they’ve been on the right path, and they’re generally very happy to do it.

But the big secret is that success is a matter of figuring it out.  It’s a puzzle, yes.  But it’s a puzzle with finite rules, learnable ones.  Have you ever assembled a bicycle?  Remember how hard it was, but you had those instructions to help you out.  Success in real life is just. Like. That.  The instructions are out there, and each step, each problem you have to solve, I can promise you somebody has done it before you and written down how they did it.  You have to have the persistence and the determination to keep looking things up as you go, but if you do that, and keep doggedly at it, and you don’t let anyone tell you that your dream isn’t worth while, inch by inch you will succeed.  And it will be ungodly slow.  You’ll feel like it’s like pulling teeth sometimes, that there has to be a faster way, and there just isn’t.  This is how it’s done – this is how it really works, and there is no faster way of doing it.

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