Happiness

what makes you happy?

i briefly touched on this in the dreams thread, but for whatever reason, i'm just not as happy as i once was. content ... maybe, but definitely not happy.

i'm not depressed, even though i did find out that it runs in the family.

anyone else in the same boat, or am i alone? i want to be fully happy again, if there is such a thing these days.

 

I'm with you on that. I'm not really depressed, but I have my moments where I can't help but stop and think what I'm going to be doing in a year - or even six months. I've been out of college for almost a year, and I still have not solidified myself into a particular career yet. I've been considering going back to school again, but money is obviously an issue.

I figure being on track with life makes me happy, if that makes sense or not.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Quarterlife-Crisis-Unique-Challenges-Twenties/dp/1585421065/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240390155&sr=8-1


This is for both of you. Read it, know it, love it.

 

huh. may have to check that out.

 

Thanks for the link, Cadet. From having read the editorial review, that may be a book I will seriously consider picking up.

 

Beer, a keyboard and lots of free time.

 

This goes to that thread a little bit, but one thing I've always found about myself is that I have the ability to notice the little things around me and truly enjoy them.

I got into a rut for a little while and then the journalism gods smiled upon me and moved me to the south pacific and I suddenly have whole new set of little things to enjoy and a lot big changes to enjoy as well.

I often find myself thinking back to a conversation I had with about eight friends in a bar in Boston about five years ago. Everyone - I mean, EVERYONE - was complaining about their jobs, their lot in life, etc. One person, who I didn't know well, asked the group, "I mean, who really likes their job, anyway?" and the entire group raised their hands.

Everyone except me.

I've always known how much I love the work. And there are a lot days that can trudge by, but - particularly since my move (which is pretty extreme) - I've just realized how many little things in my daily life can make me happy.

It's not uncommon for me to sit completely by myself in my living room and just catch myself smiling at my current predicament.

There are plenty of things that can make it better, but it could be a whole helluva lot worse. I think I've found a new appreciation for some of the same things I had back home. And while it sucks that it took such a big move to find that appreciation, I'm just in a really good place right now.

 

I think a few people on here who know me might know who I'm talking about, but I have a great friend from college (one of my best friends really), who just never seems happy unless he's miserable, as I like to put it.

He's the type of person who sees the rose for its thorns. And as much as I love the guy, I long ago learned from him that there's no point in dwelling on every little detail.

As I said on the other thread, I'm not one who gets too caught up in planning. It's a personality trait that has its downfalls. But one thing about it is that I find myself often able to just enjoy the small moments for what they are - that perfect few minutes or hours of one particular day can sometimes carry you through those shitty moments that you come across for a few hours or days later on.

Man, I'll sit on my porch with a beer in hand, some birds chirping and the sun setting on the water and never want it to end. It will end, but when I'm having that lousy day or week a short time later, I know that another one of those type of days isn't far off and that's what makes you realize that the shittiness ends, and often rather quickly.

 

I'm not happy, nor sad ... I'm just, for lack of a better word, here.

I'm running in place and I've been living my life this way for a while. The worst part is that it's my doing and I'm not sure what I need -- a new career, a relationship, etc. -- in order to move forward.

 

I'm happy when I my crap done and have some free time. So, basically, SportsJournalists.com is a happiness killer.

 

My family.

Intellectual stimulation. I have to be trying something new, learning something new. In the past year, I've learned how to bake fresh bread (which is *awesome* and I still do it every couple weeks), picked up a little French (trying to learn more, but it's slow going), became a fan of cricket and got back into computer programming as a hobby (Python > Qbasic).

Financial security. I can't tell you how good of a feeling it is to simply pay the bills on time for six months straight.

 

Playing basketball, coaching track. If I ever won the lottery, I would do two things.

Coach track full-time, and build an indoor basketball facility and play pick-up ball whenever I had free time.