Not the most inspiring quote.
Don’t we prefer something completely optimistic?
Do we want realism in our quotes?
In quote world, one phrase is enough and all your problems disappear.
Repeating it to yourself and to others can help to make it real.
As drops of water slowly fill a jar, so little quote drops fill the jar of your mind with impractical optimism.
Happiness
But isn’t the reality of happiness more practical?
Perhaps my quote wouldn’t fit through the neck of most peoples happiness jar.
But how can you be happy without money in this world?
You can be happy with enough , you can learn to be frugal.
As Charles Dickens wrote :
Mr Micawber’s famous, and oft-quoted, recipe for happiness: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” –
There are so many definitions and images of successful lives around us. As if being successful and more rich is being happier and more right.
Yet we all fail in life. I have many times and I am still failing in various ways in many different ways.
Yet I am happy.
I have had enough success that my failures can accumulate without affecting the food on the table.
I can watch the sunrise or stay in bed safe and warm.
So my quote far fills up with drops of happiness, but I had to smash the top of it so those darned quote-drops would fit in.
How do you stay happy?
The link has arrived :
How do I stay happy? Good Question. For starters I have changed my idea of happiness from feeling excitement and joy to a more serene sensation of peace or relief. I make an effort to see failures as stepping stones along my path. I say yes more to things I like and some that I don’t because I feel better choosing something than pushing against anything. I take responsibility for everything in my life which empowers me to make different choices and walk a new path. I sometimes drink beer to borrow happiness from tomorrow. The short answer I guess is that I try to Go with the flow although I still swim against the current from time to time( It builds bigger muscles). Thank you for asking 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Drink beer to borrow happiness from tomorrow is a killer phrase 🙂 thanks for the comment. Lots to think about. More like contentment is the new happiness. Happiness is sort of a hallmark creation.. to get,to need,to chase after. Some seen guy would say if you didn’t have it already where would you go for it? Taking responsibility, accepting and forgiving my own failures, yeh, all that stuff 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actions not words! Words to motivate actions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And coffee
LikeLiked by 2 people
Damn tooting
LikeLiked by 1 person
My happiness is feeling good inside and out. Any number of things can make me feel that way and it can mean any number of things. Happiness is not static.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am content! I don’t necessarily seek to be happy, but am happy in making others happy. I read, yesterday, of a very rich man who takes great delight in giving huge tips to waiters or waitresses after enjoying a good meal. He can easily afford it. This gives him great joy. The more so if the tip is not discovered until after he has gone. He is happy thinking of the others’ joy and delight at such an unexpected, and, maybe, very much needed boost to their lives. I can understand that, and would seek to do the same, although on a much smaller, and diverse scale. That makes me happy!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sounds like something I’d be happy to repeat. At the widow’s mite level of giving 🙂
LikeLike
Nice. So long as we have enough we can be happy. I think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are indeed a rebel Tim … it takes many drop of water to make a waterfall but it can happen 🙂
I meditate, live within my means and try to leave as little carbon footprint as possible … this keeps me happy 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
“I have had enough success that my failures can accumulate without affecting the food on the table.” This is a good place to be.
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] The Rebel Fish blog generally deals in subtle and convoluted comedy, and that may be what I’m seeing today, but it may be too subtle for me to grasp. Judge for yourself as the Fish takes on the often unseen and misjudged relationship between happiness and failure. […]
LikeLike
My son showed me something on-line that generates inspirational quotes randomly and it was incredible how many of them seemed “deep”…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps like beauty and good acting – it lies in the eye of the beholder. Like language there is a standard meaning which most adhere to(borne out of cultural traditions etc) but the literal meaning can be different. You tell me – you’re the semiotics guy 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I gotta say, I was impressed. It made me wonder if every concept I ever thought was deep was actually just random words. Then, I got hungry so I had some yogurt…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Been there. My life stage is putting food at number one – maybe there’s wisdom there – eat,drink and be merry
LikeLiked by 1 person
Eat, drink and be merry
and dance the whole night through
for tomorrow we may die
but, alas, we never do…
LikeLiked by 1 person
there’s always tomorrow …..apart from once
LikeLiked by 1 person
How do I stay happy?
I drink…. but you probably already knew that.
Seriously though, happiness is a state of mind. I wake up every morning thinking , “life is good” and then it is. I take pleasure in the small, as well as the large.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Moderation in all things but one… 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m really not that much of a lush. I only drink on vacation. And when we go out. And on holidays. And for special occasions. And…. okay, yes. I hear myself. Never mind.
😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lol , well people used to drink more back in the day, so you can say you’re just appreciating history.. ( appreciating being a word you may not be able to say )
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes. That’s what I am…. retro. And vintage.
I can live with that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
For me, happiness is a mindset. (I am a Buddhist and this is one of the ways in which we think). Of course, I get bad days as we all do – but I have learned to step back from the initial emotion and ‘watch it’. Instead of getting caught up in it. Great post well done 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
We are the silent witness to our thoughts. Bringing it back to the breath as part of meditation helps the habit of observation of thought without getting lost I feel.
LikeLiked by 1 person
YES! I so agree!
LikeLiked by 1 person