What is it about happiness? - Eileen Forrestal

As Voltaire, the French philosopher said ‘I choose happiness because it is good for my health.’

Quote from John Lennon … “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

What parent doesn’t say, when a child is born, all they want is for them to be healthy and happy.

They immediately envision the perfect life for that child so they can be as happy and fulfilled as possible. The future stretches out with its abundance of opportunities and possibilities.

In order to prepare them for this great life, we give them healthy food, make sure they have lots of exercise and protect them from harm and accidents as much as possible.

We love to see them happily playing with their friends, happily celebrating their birthdays and happily enjoying their games and parties.

And then there’s school …

How many are happily sitting in their classrooms, happily learning away, happily doing their homework … happily knowing their exams are coming up … happily knowing they will be tested … happily working hard to make sure they succeed … and ..

…unhappily facing the fearful prospect of failing … in their own eyes … in the eyes of their teachers .. and worse still, in the eyes of their classmates …

At what point does success become more important than happiness?

When do we decide that ‘happiness is just for children’ .. but success is what matters in the real world?

“Your school days are the best days of your life”.

Are they?

They could be … if there wasn’t so much pressure to ‘succeed’ … to win … to not lose face … to pass ‘the test’ … with all its attendant anxiety and fear of failing .. and falling short .. just because youre not ‘wired’ for Mathematics, your wired for Music … and can see the patterns in the notes … You’re not wired for French .. your language is fun .. and friendship .. and freedom .. and maybe Fast Cars .. and could win the Formula 1 with a bit of encouragement.

What about the artists, and entertainers and gardeners and beauty therapists and entrepreneurs and builders and cleaners and all the people who help the more ‘academic’ of you … who wouldn’t be very happy without them!

Let’s not forget about happiness as we guide children from childhood to adulthood.

Children need happy adults as role models.

Who wants to aspire to being a stressed out, grumpy, complaining, critical and miserable human being when the possibility of being a fun, kind, caring, compassionate, creative, accepting and peaceful human being might be a significantly more attractive and fulfilling way to live.

We are all likely to be successful at what we choose to do. We are all able and capable of doing a multitude of things, almost whatever we put our mind to. Why not be encouraged to follow our passion and do what we love to do … and become better at that? Do we need more tests and exams setting us against our peers? Will we ever know enough? Will we ever be satisfied that we got it right … without some outside examiner telling us? Will we ever be happy with our results knowing they are “not as good” as the ones we are comparing ourselves with?

Maybe it’s time to go back to school and start to learn about life.

Where there’s a will there’s a way. Where there’s a won’t there’s no way!

Happiness is a choice.

Here are 10 simple ways to be happy …