Dear Happiness Friends,
This is the completion of our first year. It has brought us new friends and people who have grown closer to one another. I am thinking of each of you on this New Year's Eve 2000. I want to wish each and every one of you the very best for the New Year. May you choose happiness, have health and prosperity. May all the best that life has to offer be yours.
Join me in spreading happiness to others, by Being Happy! YOU can truly change the world.
I have included a copy of the latest column in the Fairfield Citizen-News. It was just published this Friday. If you are interested in other articles the web site has all of them for you.
What are you waiting for; more money? A house; a bigger house; a better house? Waiting to have kids; waiting for the kids to leave? How about a better girlfriend, or boyfriend or a new improved husband or wife?
If you were waiting for reasons to make you happy, a hundred years would not be enough. Choose happiness first and the reasons will flow into your life. In fact why not choose unconditional happiness? If you place conditions on your happiness you will be conditioned by events and people you have no control over. You will allow the outside world to have control over you. By not choosing happiness you are allowing situations and people to control your life.
You're unhappy because you are not in control of your happiness. Why give control of something as important as your happiness to other people? That is a job best left up to you. Make Being Happy your New Year's Resolution. In fact learn that you can be happy no matter what.
One of the greatest lessons I have ever learned was from a wonderful man by the name of Epictetus; he lived during the time the calendar read 0001, and was born a slave in the Roman Empire. He was granted freedom at age 30, so he lived half his life as a slave and the rest of his life till he was 60 years old as a free man. The lesson he taught me was the following: "It is our opinions of things and not the things themselves that cause the
disturbances of our lives."
I know that life being "unfair" may be the way things are. The part that we need to learn is that we must be fair to ourselves. Instead of letting events tell us what to do and how to feel, we must look for new ways to deal with the upsets of life.
Life is not fair, but if we allow the things we cannot control, to control us than we are the ones who are not being fair. We are not being fair with ourselves. We need to be there for ourselves. No matter how bad things may get, being unhappy does not do us any good. Being unhappy actually makes things much worse then they already are.
We must be fair to ourselves. The only way to do that is to choose happiness, no matter what happens. That way we can deal with what is happening and make the very best out of it. No one is smart enough to be negative. No one knows what will happen next, so it does not make sense to be negative.
It has been said that circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him. Life may be unfair, but the only choice we have in the final examination, is what will we do next. Emotions can become our worst enemy when we lose control of ourselves. Happiness is the one thing that makes sense. It is the way of wisdom when we need to know which way to go from here. Happiness allows us to deal with the situations and the circumstances of life in the most
> intelligent way possible.
LIFE IS UNFAIR, knowing that, whose side are you on? How do you expect to have anyone else on your side if you're not! Choose happiness and you will not only be on your side, but other people will join you. Being happy attracts people like a magnet to you. That's why positive people attract more people to themselves.
True happiness gives birth to love. Love comes from happiness. People stop loving each other because they allow themselves to become unhappy, and negative.
True happiness is peace. You cannot be peaceful and unhappy. The two states cannot exist in the same dwelling. True happiness is the way of peace. This time of the year we wish each other peace, and also wish each other a happy New Year. Only when each of us becomes happy can true peace emerge.
Being Happy gives us the best strategy for dealing with life. Being Happy allows peace to be encountered by other people. Peace is not something to acquire like a material possession. Peace is not something to get. You cannot> have peace. Peace is here now, don't send it away.
If you really want peace, if you really want others to be happy, Being Happy is your best choice. Happiness begins within you. To give it to others you must have it, to have it, you must BE IT. You cannot give away what you have not got. You need to be happy in order to give happiness to others. Showing people you are happy is the best gift you can give them.
Happiness is truly the gift that keeps on giving. A smile passed along from you to someone else can keep being passed along. A smile is infectious, so you can create a happiness epidemic.
I am walking down the street and someone will smile at me. I am pleasantly surprised because I was not smiling at the time. I think people know when you are happy and they connect with it. It is the happiness within you that is most important. Instead of wishing people happiness, show them happiness. Your happiness can change the world.
Many people tell me they would like their life to make a difference. Being happy does more to change the world, then many other things you can do. Even people dedicated to helping others do not do as much to help, as you do when you are being happy. Anything you do with happiness is the greatest way to serve people.
Join us at our next monthly meeting of the Happiness Club in the Fairfield Public Library at 1080 Old Post Road in the Rotary Room on Thursday, January 18, 2001. Admission is free, so come enjoy the talk "Lighten up ... Be Happy!"
Be fair to yourself and everyone around you -- choose A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Lionel Ketchian is the founder of the Happiness Club. He can be reached at
© Copyright 2001, Lionel R. Ketchian, all rights reserved.