I will be happier if only...

• I am richer
• I am prettier
• I am slimmer
• I am more successful
• I have more friends
• I have a rich, powerful, successful and handsome husband
• I have a bigger house
• I have a more luxurious car

And the list goes on and on and on….

It seems that happiness is always achieved if only you get whatever you thought you wanted, but is that really so?

The other day, I was having a conversation with a friend and she was lamenting about how unhappy she is despite having fulfilled her own dreams of buying her own apartment so she has her own place to live in.

“I always thought I’d be happy once I get my own place but now that I’ve got it, I don’t feel happy at all,”  she told me.

Why is that so? When I asked her why was she so unhappy, she doesn’t even know why.

Well, there are a lot of people like her. They seem to have everything they desired and yet they are not happy. They continue to complain about how their life suck, about how unhappy they are and wanting more out of life.

I used to think like that too light years ago when I was still in my teens. I’d have these dreams and think that once I achieve them, I’d be the happiest person on earth. Mind you, I’ve achieved some of them but not all… and then I realised my dreams have changed. My goals in life changed. My priorities changed. And most importantly, my outlook in life changed.

Why keep thinking one is unhappy when one is actually not all that unhappy?

Think about it.

If you are in good health, have a good job, have a family who cares for you and you are not stuck in Kamunting or anything like that, what is there to be unhappy about?

Some say they are unhappy about their job. Well, just like life, nothing is all smooth-sailing isn’t it?

Some say they are unhappy because of the above few reasons I mentioned above. Whatever for?

Why wait for the fulfillment of some faraway dreams to be happy when you can be happy now? I don’t have a perfect life with a perfect job and a perfect husband nor did I have a perfect figure. But I refuse to be unhappy. Why waste the present lamenting over what I don’t have and wishing for something I want to have?

Yes, sure, I may let go and rant here and there over some nonsensical stuff like lousy inlaws, stupid Streamyx, dumbass drivers, idiots at work, etc… but these doesn’t really make me unhappy. These are what I’d call annoyances that rile me up, make my blood pressure rise and make me rant in all my sarkiness but it doesn’t affect the way I see life.

Okay, some of you may say it’s easy for me to say that all we need to do is to be happy in order to feel happy when I have nothing to worry about. Well, you are wrong. I have loads to worry about. I have loads to be unhappy about and yes, I have loads of problems I wish I could zap away.

But I don’t let all that get in the way.

Why should I?

Remember all the corny forwarded emails telling you to live like today is the last day of your life? I absolutely agree with that. Why go through life feeling so unhappy because of some minor setbacks when you can be happy and forget about all those things that are trying to pull you down?

Why wait to be prettier, slimmer, richer, whatever before being really, really happy? Why not be happy RIGHT NOW?

So, I can safely say…

I am happy simply because I want to be so.

I am happy simply because I am alive.

I am happy simply because I am well enough now with no serious health complications.

I am happy simply because.

So, why not seize the moment and be happy now rather than be unhappy for the rest of your life over unimportant things? Just remember:

Happiness lies in your hands, not in anyone else’s hands! Need more reasons to be happy? Fine…here are some of it:

• Be happy that you are not on your deathbed but if you are, be happy that you are leaving this pain-filled, cruel, cruel world.
• Be happy that you are not supermodel thin because it means you have enough to eat and are not starving due to famine and war.
• Be happy that you have a job even though it sucks because at the end of the month, you still get paid for it.
• Be happy that you have a spouse even though he / she may have changed a lot over the years, at least you won’t be growing old with a bunch of cats that will shed fur on all your furniture, cough up furballs and leave claw marks on everything.
• Be happy that you are single because it means you are independent and confident enough to go through life by yourself and you don’t need anyone else to determine your happiness (just don’t get a houseful of cats).
• Be happy that you even have a family no matter how screwed up they are because nothing means more than having people who will still accept you no matter how eccentric or crazy you are.
• Be happy if you don’t have any family because you are spared all the headaches of family squabbles and quarrels and politicking.
• Be happy that you are not drop-dead gorgeous because people will appreciate you for who you are and not what you look like.
• Be happy that you can make the choice to be happy because some people will refuse to be happy no matter what and choose to remain a wet blanket throughout their whole life.
• Be happy that it is much easier to be happy than be unhappy because when you are unhappy you will need to concentrate very hard of tiny, minuscule things that don’t matter as reasons to be unhappy.