Being Happy

More often than not you see and meet people not happy with their lives. I am not saying that nobody has problems in their lives.. There are people who are genuinely suffering because of  some reasons. But the number of such people is pretty low compared to those who are suffering with self inflicted sadistic approaches. This post is about the second type of people who unfortunately are found in every nook and corner of our lives.

You will see people groaning and whining about their lives which apparently to an outsider is nothing less than great. People keep complaining about how deep they are into the seas of boredom and misery while others think their life is awesome. Here I am talking about people who are earning more than enough money and living a life that is nothing less than enviable. The problem with most of us today is how much we are bothered by others' lives. We are more concerned about others' success than our own. People keep burning their hearts out by seeing the successes others are enjoying (rather earning) with their hard work. Conversely and even more shockingly, people enjoy when others fail. In some old Bollywood flick( pardon my bad GK in the field) there was a simple tip for such people - "If you want your line to be longer, make it longer rather than trying to erase the other line." Unfortunately, I see more people following the other option. Instead of controlling their own lives, they want to be controlled( unadmittedly) by others. How can you be happy and contented with such a life which is so much dependent on others?

Another amazing story that I hear very often is "I am not being able to do what I want". Just ask why and you  will invariably get the answer "I don't have time". I just can't make peace with that statement. Everybody gets 24 hours in a day. If you can't figure out how to get few hours out of them for what you love then you simply don't love it enough. The problem with almost all of us( including me) is we plan for everything and do nothing. We make huge plans but fall way short in terms of commitment when it comes to execution of those plans. And then we start making new plans.

All in all, most of the people say they are not happy. They simply fail to recognize there are simply too many opportunities around us to make us feel good about ourselves. The best solution that I see is amazingly simple-"help others". How? When? Living in a country like India, you will never find yourself short of such opportunities. Just get out of your air conditioned flats and you will see kids walking barefoot on concrete under the scorching sun. Is getting them a pair of slippers something we can't afford? But we simply prefer to look otherwise. We never think twice before spending a few thousands with our friends but we never even think of getting the poor something to eat. We simply live for ourselves. But then you may ask, "there are just too many people who need our help. Should we help all/ how can we help them all?" I Agree. Who says you need to be millionaire to do philanthropy. But at least try to help a few. For us it wont matter to keep aside few hundred bucks per month but it might improve some lives. A great opportunity is to adopt a child. It will cost you hardly what you might be planning to spend on the next Valentine's day but it will surely change a life. Another thing you can do is help elders whenever you think they need it. You will find them everywhere- in a supermarket, at an airport etc. In a nutshell, simply help the people you don't know because nothing is as satisfying as a selfless service, knowing that you are not getting anything back.

Again a question-what in the name of Jesus it has to do with me being happy? I prefer you find out the answer to this question yourself. As they say, nothing is as convincing as seeing it yourself.