“I just want to be happy.” Have you ever said that to yourself? I have and believe that many people have as well. It’s often said when we feel like life is winning. Life is beating us up and there seems to be nothing we can do about it. Why won’t life give us a break? Why can’t we just be happy? Why won’t our luck change? Maybe Billy Zane has the answer…
“A real man makes his own luck.”
In the movie Titanic, Caledon Hockley (played by Billy Zane) said, “A real man makes his own luck.” I’ve seen Titanic a couple times all the way through, in addition to the occasional times where it is on TV while I’m doing some things around the house. It was an arrogant thing to say, but from what I can gather, I don’t think he was completely wrong.
Time for Blue Collar Comedy: “I believe…”
I believe that someone who has a positive outlook on life is someone who makes his own “luck.” I put “luck” in quotes because you get what you look for in life. If you’re outlook on life is generally negative, then you probably feel like you have bad luck. If you’re outlook on life is generally positive, then you probably feel like you have pretty good luck. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe it is luck that determines what happens to us in life. I believe it is what we look for in life and where we look for it that does.
Where are you looking?
If you want to find happiness, the first question that needs to be asked is, “Where are you looking for happiness?” It’s true that there are things in life that can make us happy. A promotion at work with lots more money, a new relationship that’s exciting, or a son or daughter reaching a significant accomplishment, are all things that can make us happy. There is only one problem with these things. They’re all temporary and fleeting. It’s like that new car smell that makes us buy the car, but that car is only new for a few months. That monthly payment is real for years.
If you truly want to find happiness, don’t start looking at the things around you and what you can get. Instead, start looking within yourself for an inner joy that can help you see the world differently. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Happiness that lasts comes from within, not from the world outside us. True we can be sad when something bad happens, and that will temporarily kill our happiness. But those sad times are temporary and fleeting too, unless we focus on the wrong things, giving them a longer life than they deserve.
The Takeaway
I don’t believe happiness is about luck at all. I believe happiness comes down to our outlook on life and how we view the things that happen to us in life. If we want to have “good luck,” we need to have eyes that look for the good things in life. We need to understand that it is the story we tell ourselves about our lives that ultimately lead us to the life we live.
As Shakespeare said…
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”