Gretchen Rubin's article posted in Yahoo's main page the other day list 10 suggestions for making yourself a happier person, and after a quick read through her comments I have to disagree.
Can one really be a happier person by faking happiness until sheer repetition of lying to yourself kicks into high gear? I doubt it. When selling insurance years ago, we took a course on becoming a good salesperson and one segment dealt with just that. Simply saying to yourself, "I'm a good salesperson", or "I'm happy", or "I would make a good vice-president" won't actually make it happen. Case in point, Sarah Palin.
How about another one of Gretchen's ideas of letting yourself go by deliberately doing something you know your bad at. Hmmm. Let's see, I hate myself so I will hurt my ego even more by deliberately messing something else up. Good idea.
Or how about buying happiness? Sure that works every time for me. Not. I'm sure if that were the case, everyone who was wealthy would be happy and obviously that's simply not true. Some of the richest people I know are miserable.
Finally her suggestion to simply shut up and stop nagging is a great way to end up in an institution in my book. Pent-up frustration always has a way of coming out one day, especially if your angst continues unabated.
Now, when I first read through this article my first reaction was that there might be a difference between men and women when it comes to happiness, but after careful thought, I decided that isn't the case either.
Here is my top ten list for finding happiness.
1. Get over yourself.
2. Understand you may be to blame, at least in part.
3. Find out exactly why you aren't happy.
4. Take a deep breath and count to ten.
5. Talk to a close friend who will stop and listen until your done.
6. Challenge yourself to speak up, or change the situation.
7. Look for professional help if the problem doesn't go away.
8. Slow down and smell the roses at least once a week.
9. Learn how to accept what life throws your way even if it's not always good.
10. Share a little love with someone you don't know.
Until the next post, I wish everyone joy and happiness!
Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
I told you so?
You know that old saying, "I told you so," which is usually precluded by two or more people entering into an agreement, where one person has already predicted the correct outcome? Of course, we all have.
Well, this brings me to one night I vividly remember watching the news as a young child. After Reagan announced to the President of the Soviet Union, Mikael Gorbachev, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" while standing in front of a half million German's at the Brandenburg Gate, I turned to dad and told him that I believed the end of the communist nation had begun and that the wall separating East and West Germany would come down soon. Dad just laughed at me in response and continued reading the newspaper. A few years later, and that was another I told you so moment.
Here is another one to think about. It's similar to an I told you so, but a little different. Probably similar (in exactly the opposite way) to the following riddle ...
An enthusiastic young archeologist emerges from an extensive dig and announces to the media that he has discovered the remains of Adam and Eve. How did he know this? We are all then supposed to guess, how he knew these bodies were actually Adam and Eve.
Except I don't think this is a riddle, but more of a sad reality really. We of course, shouldn't or couldn't say something like, I told you so at the end of this event because for us there really isn't an after to talk about. History will just continue, except that we won't be a part of it. Would it still be history?
The only way that part would work (for me anyway), is if it were said by a drunken Englishman, who by that point had no idea that he was actually the only person left alive but just didn't know it. Sad irony. Something the British are great for.
But dash it all, we are just about at the end here. May be not to the extreme of total extinction, but close enough. According to the genetic experts, there was a time in human history when we did face a near extinction of our species. At that time in our early years, there were only 2,000 women or so left living which created a huge "genetic bottleneck". Fortunately those that were left survived and reproduced.
It is supposed that possibly a great flood may have caused this, but whatever legends persist, I am sure Noah may have been thinking, "I told you so" which he tried to do often despite harsh ridicule before the rain came.
From my limited knowledge, I understand that God had become sick of us because, well we just weren't good people anymore and He decided that it was time to scrape the project and break the mold, almost.
Now here we go again. Whatever your beliefs may be, one thing is for sure, you have to be one deranged person not to think that this definitely looks like the end of the world is approaching. What that may look like when we try to picture it using our limited powers of imagination, I am sure will be nothing like the actual events that take place.
Because the world is so large, things may happen in some places before others, but eventually it will affect everyone to the point where life itself may not be viable.
Activists think there is still hope, but fail to realize the true scope of the problem and feel that if only they do their part, things may just improve. It won't. People are powerless this time as well.
Unfortunately, the dice has already been cast and all we can do is wait until it bounces off the backboard and stops. Where we are and what we are doing when this happens will just provide us with time enough to ponder the bitterly sad remark, I told you so ...
The problem is that we as humans are far to removed from life itself. Almost everything we create, or consume has a net negative balance for life.
Take cell phones for example. We cannot live without them. There is no changing that fact, and there is nothing that will change us to change that fact. Now cell phones are actually very bad for us. Given long enough use, we will almost certainly develop a brain tumor, or two. That is fine. Even though scientific research has concluded for years that putting a magnet to your brain can cause cancer, cell phone use keeps increasing. In fact, these magnets and magnetic fields, (not to mention the radiation) which is created only gets stronger as new models come out.
This strange behavior in humans to caste aside their personal health, just for the benefit of immediate gratification (which is what a cell phone really represents) reminds me of breast implants for some strange reason.
Anyway, not only is a cell phone bad for us, but its very bad for the earth itself. Now, try hard to imagine that we as humans cannot exist without food, and that almost all grown food sources, such as oranges, must be pollinated by a bee. There are actually very few things that don't need to be pollinated via insect assistance.
Someone should really compile a list though because pretty soon those foods will be all we will have left to eat. It will be a short list. Einstein once said that if the bees were gone, that people would only have a few years left. What's the correlation?
Bees hate cell phones, and especially cell phone towers. In fact they hate them so much, that these thriving colonies just evaporate leaving a scattered few behind and a dying Queen.
Used to be farmers would tend their own bee colonies, or use a local bee keeper. Now, bees are treated like a simple commodity going by freight to where ever they are needed at the time.
Like the trout which used to spawn in so many of America's west-coast tributaries, the bees are rapidly facing extinction here and across many parts of the world.
Of course, this is just one small example of the plight we all face. Some are just feeling things a little sooner. Someone from California I met today, said things are just crazy over there right now.
One thing that struck me was that the problems seemed to touch everyone in some way both in their personal lives and in things surrounding them. That is, she said, except those rich people seem to be doing just fine.
Well they may be somewhat insulated for now, but they also have to notice that it's 110 degrees in San Francisco and those beautiful bay-area fogs are gone to realize something is coming that may even be bigger than them.
Well, this brings me to one night I vividly remember watching the news as a young child. After Reagan announced to the President of the Soviet Union, Mikael Gorbachev, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" while standing in front of a half million German's at the Brandenburg Gate, I turned to dad and told him that I believed the end of the communist nation had begun and that the wall separating East and West Germany would come down soon. Dad just laughed at me in response and continued reading the newspaper. A few years later, and that was another I told you so moment.
Here is another one to think about. It's similar to an I told you so, but a little different. Probably similar (in exactly the opposite way) to the following riddle ...
An enthusiastic young archeologist emerges from an extensive dig and announces to the media that he has discovered the remains of Adam and Eve. How did he know this? We are all then supposed to guess, how he knew these bodies were actually Adam and Eve.
Except I don't think this is a riddle, but more of a sad reality really. We of course, shouldn't or couldn't say something like, I told you so at the end of this event because for us there really isn't an after to talk about. History will just continue, except that we won't be a part of it. Would it still be history?
The only way that part would work (for me anyway), is if it were said by a drunken Englishman, who by that point had no idea that he was actually the only person left alive but just didn't know it. Sad irony. Something the British are great for.
But dash it all, we are just about at the end here. May be not to the extreme of total extinction, but close enough. According to the genetic experts, there was a time in human history when we did face a near extinction of our species. At that time in our early years, there were only 2,000 women or so left living which created a huge "genetic bottleneck". Fortunately those that were left survived and reproduced.
It is supposed that possibly a great flood may have caused this, but whatever legends persist, I am sure Noah may have been thinking, "I told you so" which he tried to do often despite harsh ridicule before the rain came.
From my limited knowledge, I understand that God had become sick of us because, well we just weren't good people anymore and He decided that it was time to scrape the project and break the mold, almost.
Now here we go again. Whatever your beliefs may be, one thing is for sure, you have to be one deranged person not to think that this definitely looks like the end of the world is approaching. What that may look like when we try to picture it using our limited powers of imagination, I am sure will be nothing like the actual events that take place.
Because the world is so large, things may happen in some places before others, but eventually it will affect everyone to the point where life itself may not be viable.
Activists think there is still hope, but fail to realize the true scope of the problem and feel that if only they do their part, things may just improve. It won't. People are powerless this time as well.
Unfortunately, the dice has already been cast and all we can do is wait until it bounces off the backboard and stops. Where we are and what we are doing when this happens will just provide us with time enough to ponder the bitterly sad remark, I told you so ...
The problem is that we as humans are far to removed from life itself. Almost everything we create, or consume has a net negative balance for life.
Take cell phones for example. We cannot live without them. There is no changing that fact, and there is nothing that will change us to change that fact. Now cell phones are actually very bad for us. Given long enough use, we will almost certainly develop a brain tumor, or two. That is fine. Even though scientific research has concluded for years that putting a magnet to your brain can cause cancer, cell phone use keeps increasing. In fact, these magnets and magnetic fields, (not to mention the radiation) which is created only gets stronger as new models come out.
This strange behavior in humans to caste aside their personal health, just for the benefit of immediate gratification (which is what a cell phone really represents) reminds me of breast implants for some strange reason.
Anyway, not only is a cell phone bad for us, but its very bad for the earth itself. Now, try hard to imagine that we as humans cannot exist without food, and that almost all grown food sources, such as oranges, must be pollinated by a bee. There are actually very few things that don't need to be pollinated via insect assistance.
Someone should really compile a list though because pretty soon those foods will be all we will have left to eat. It will be a short list. Einstein once said that if the bees were gone, that people would only have a few years left. What's the correlation?
Bees hate cell phones, and especially cell phone towers. In fact they hate them so much, that these thriving colonies just evaporate leaving a scattered few behind and a dying Queen.
Used to be farmers would tend their own bee colonies, or use a local bee keeper. Now, bees are treated like a simple commodity going by freight to where ever they are needed at the time.
Like the trout which used to spawn in so many of America's west-coast tributaries, the bees are rapidly facing extinction here and across many parts of the world.
Of course, this is just one small example of the plight we all face. Some are just feeling things a little sooner. Someone from California I met today, said things are just crazy over there right now.
One thing that struck me was that the problems seemed to touch everyone in some way both in their personal lives and in things surrounding them. That is, she said, except those rich people seem to be doing just fine.
Well they may be somewhat insulated for now, but they also have to notice that it's 110 degrees in San Francisco and those beautiful bay-area fogs are gone to realize something is coming that may even be bigger than them.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
"Fuck the South" Website
This is some hard hitting anger, but he does have his points.
Elections put people into office successfully when based upon performance measures and standards (the issues), not morality. This website might trumpet some tough standards on our Republican counterparts, however it's totally lacking any, well ... Caution: Foul language ahead.
Elections put people into office successfully when based upon performance measures and standards (the issues), not morality. This website might trumpet some tough standards on our Republican counterparts, however it's totally lacking any, well ... Caution: Foul language ahead.
Monday, November 08, 2004
Political Comics by the Great Dr. Seuss
"Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904-1991) was a life-long cartoonist: in high school in Springfield, Massachusetts; in college at Dartmouth (Class of 1925); as an adman in New York City before World War II; in his many children's books, beginning with To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1937). Because of the fame of his children's books (and because we often misunderstand these books) and because his political cartoons have remained largely unknown, we do not think of Dr. Seuss as a political cartoonist. But for two years, 1941-1943, he was the chief editorial cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM (1940-1948), and for that journal he drew over 400 editorial cartoons." (Click on the link above for the complete Dr. Seuss collection of political comics.)
Thursday, September 16, 2004
This One Made Me Laugh
One of my friends just got back from a trip to Canada recently and told me a great story about his uncle who had a tough time getting back into the country because he misplaced his passport.
The powers that be had their doubts about the authenticity of his claims as an American citizen, and was denied entry. Unable to successfully repeat the Star Spangled Banner problems soon arose as to the true nature of his national origin. Sadly, the poor sod did eventually make it in after being brought before the American Consulate some time later.
Hopefully, they found another method to use that was a little more effective, like asking him to sing the opening theme for, “King of the Hill”.
Are you an American? Find out for yourself, if you were ever doubting that fact, and start with, "O say, can you see". The complete version is linked to the title if you get lost.
Hmmm. Wouldn't it have been better to just ask for a social security number, or something like that?
The powers that be had their doubts about the authenticity of his claims as an American citizen, and was denied entry. Unable to successfully repeat the Star Spangled Banner problems soon arose as to the true nature of his national origin. Sadly, the poor sod did eventually make it in after being brought before the American Consulate some time later.
Hopefully, they found another method to use that was a little more effective, like asking him to sing the opening theme for, “King of the Hill”.
Are you an American? Find out for yourself, if you were ever doubting that fact, and start with, "O say, can you see". The complete version is linked to the title if you get lost.
Hmmm. Wouldn't it have been better to just ask for a social security number, or something like that?
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