As human beings we tend to be drawn towards things that make us happy. We enjoy the feeling. When we get that rush of serotonin or dopamine we feel good. It's euphoria. Whether your favourite sporting team has emerged victorious, your baby takes her first step or something unexpectedly good happens in your life, that feeling you get is one you enjoy and one you want to last as long as it can.
We all know what makes us happy and what does not. What I've realised, albeit recently, is that life is often lived with happiness at the forefront of our minds. Our decisions are made with this emotion underneath everything.
If you make sure that you are happy every single day of your life, even if it's fleeting, then your life will have been worth living. Take a successful CEO of a company for example and compare her to a homeless beggar. We'll call the former 'A' and the latter 'B' for the purposes of this illustration. In an average day in A's life his moment of happiness will come when he looks at his company's balance sheet or share price. Compare this to the average day of B's life and you will have already noticed that the difference is stark, and that's putting it mildly. B's happiness will come from a complete stranger dropping some loose change, perhaps a couple of coins if he's lucky, into his cup. Or perhaps even if a passerby does something as effortless as giving him a smile. These two very different examples are to show you how varied happiness can be. For A, it means that his company is healthy, he isn't worrying about financial issues and maybe he can afford to buy a bigger house for his family next year. For B, it may just mean that he saves up enough of those coins to buy a hot meal that night or maybe that smile prevented him from doing something he would regret. It may make him realise that life is worth living, even if it's for those very small yet meaningful moments.
Every single person's life is different and we all have to make the most of it.
If you live your life being a kind, considerate and friendly person then the chances are you are going to attract other people who are also those things and more importantly show others that that is the correct way of living and moving forward as a species.
Your smile, your helping hand, your advice could make someone happy. It could change someone's view of the world. It could change their life.
If we don't help each other out then life is going to be much more difficult than it already is.
