Right now I am tossing around ideas for
a class. It is my public speaking class. While I am pretty damn sure
I do not need this class, I am required to get to attend to attain my
degree. I also believe that since you wonderful taxpayers were kind
enough to honor my GI Bill, the least I can do to be grateful is to
do a good job. It is a persuasive presentation, and our teacher
requested we keep it light. I can understand, being that our last
attempt at speaking was an informative speech, and well the topics
were a little heavy. We dealt with teen suicide, texting and driving
(which included that video of the British chicks all getting smashed
to hell), a great presentation on body standards, and a few others
that hit home. My group took a lighter spin on a darker subject. We
dealt with death by talking about our personal bucket lists.
So to keep things light I decided to
tell people why they are the only thing between them and their
happiness. The pursuit thereof is guaranteed by the Constitution, yet
so few people try attempt to find it. I think it is due to a shift in
needs, and people are unable to be happy because of the mindset that
comes with that shift. So here are some of my ideas that I will be
placing on slides to offer advice to all of those wide eyed children
that attend my class. I am working out the thoughts and you are all
my test monkeys as usual.
First I want to start with the mental
state the vast majority are in that prevents them from being truly
happy. This thought process that is back by the consumer society we
belong to. The externally driven belief that happiness can only come
from with out. We define happy as the white picket fence, the big
screen TV, the perfect relationship, a large bank account, or perhaps
a college degree. Some go a little deeper and thing of it as the
smile in their child's face. Either way, while those things might
make you happy in a brain chemical stimulation process, they are
however not the way to achieve a state of happiness.
You see we are so obsessed with the
grass being greener on the other side that we forget to water our own
lawn. In that we find happiness is a feeling. While feelings can be
influenced externally, it is the internal workings of our mind that
allows the state to exist in the first place. We have to give thought
to validate our own right to be happy. We are trained to look to
external validation. We have this driving need to seek the approval
of our peers, our parents, or just society in general. When in
reality all we need is our of approval. We are all we need to
validate ourselves. We decide if something taste good, feels good, or
is just plain good. While the human experience is filled interactions
with others, it is how we lay all that information out, and process
it, that gives form to our universe.
Think of life as chance to gather data.
The world, and the people on it, are giving us blocks. They start
giving us all these blocks the day we are born. While they can tell
us what to do with these blocks, it is only our hands that place them
where they need to be. Some will sell there blocks to you, as if
their blocks are better than other blocks, but at the end of the day
they are your blocks. You decide with your own thoughts what to do
with these blocks. You can choose to build walls, or roads. You can
build bridges or prisons. You can set the stage for your own personal
reality.
So you need to define your parameters
to be happy. It is you and only you that gets to decide what you do
and do not like. It is you that sets your mood and processes the data
of the world. I look at it like this; You call me an asshole, I
decide if it's true. If I am indeed an asshole, I decide how much I
care. I validate the data, based on what you tell me, and at the end
of it, it is me and only me that gives it value. This process still
happens regardless if you are influenced externally. Become aware of
it just gives you control.
All of the crap people throw your way,
only carries the weight that you allow it. I only worry about how
things make me feel, and how I can feel good. I do not mean I am
going to masturbate on the light rail, but I mean feel good
internally. Can I look at myself and feel good about myself. I
decide, who or what makes me happy. I try to surround myself with
people that make me happy. I stop waiting my time on people who not
deserve my attention or affections, and look for value added
relationships. I do not worry what others think or feel if they are
just consumers. Now if I find people sharing this human "Do"ing
expierence with me, I will share my life with them. I try not to
worry, because worry is just the dark side of your imagination. In
the end of it all, I try to find the deepest love I can, and that my
friend is when you can love who you are in spite of yourself. When
you find that love, then you can love another, then you will also
find love in life.