RUSSIAN author Anton Chekhov said: “Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.’’
Our penchant for comparing ourselves with the people next door, like our tendency to grow bored with the things that we acquire, seems to be a deeply rooted human trait.
Happiness is, according to some researchers, 50 percent genetic. What you do with the other half of the happiness challenge depends on attitude.
The Spanish conqueror Abd Er-Rahman III observed about 1200 years ago: “I have now reigned about 50 years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies.
“Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call. Nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity.
“In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot. They amount to 14.’’
How different is the attitude of poet William Blake who said happiness was daily seeing “a world in a grain of sand’’ and “heaven in a wildflower’’.
The people who are happiest seems to be those who are both poets and realists. They know happiness doesn’t depend on what we think they deserve.
They aren’t bothered by the success of others because they know life isn’t always fair.
As Abraham Lincoln said: “Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Lincoln advised being grateful, practising random acts of kindness, forgiving our enemies and noticing life’s small pleasures was part of the secret.
Happiness doesn’t depend on what you have, but what you think you have.