As an aid to inspiration and blogging I have a few Google alerts setup to keep me up to date on what is being posted out there on certain topics.  When I set it up the word ‘happiness’ seemed like a logical choice but now I’m starting to roll my eyes out of frustration.  Every single day there are ten or so blog posts or articles that Google deems newsworthy enough to send me with titles like “8 steps to happiness” “money doesn’t buy happiness”, “money does buy happiness”, “why aren’t we happy”, “what is happiness”, “how to be happier” etc., etc., etc.  The web is obsessing about happiness and it seems to be getting unhappier about it every day.

When I stop to think about it, I am happy.  I don’t have everything I want, I haven’t achieved my big goals, I have money worries, and I just lost my father but when I go down the back steps and out to my garage to solder little bronze wires together, I’m happy.  When I sit down to my computer and write, I’m happy.  The way I know that is that I consciously ask myself how I’m feeling rather than waiting for a certificate in the mail saying that I’ve achieved happiness.  It seems like people are confusing the emotion with a lack of stress or a specific goal.  It is possible to be both happy and sad at the same time or happy and stressed.

So how are you feeling?  Do you find yourself frowning or smiling when you’re by yourself and nobody can see you?

Technorati Tags: finding happiness, happiness in life

Yesterday my 18 year old cat, Isabeau, got the official diagnosis of kidney disease.  Apparently most cats will get this if they live long enough, the same way most elderly humans have at least some arthritis.  The question I have to answer for myself and for her is what is the right balance of intervention, money, and care?

Some will say it’s just a cat and others will say that no effort should be spared.  It’s true that she’s not a child (heck, even if she was human she’d be in her 90’s) but we’ve been a team for a very long time.  However, I can’t quite see that dragging her to the vet every few weeks would be something she’d vote for. So like many things I’ll be figuring this out one piece at a time and trying to balance all of the above.  Right now I’m ok with changing her diet to the special prescription only food – of course I haven’t seen the bill yet…  but I’m not ok with giving her IV fluids.  I’ve given shots before so it’s not a question of my nerves, just that this cat likes being in control of her movements and her environment, even more than other cats.  Forcing her to sit still with an IV every week feels wrong. That’s not a decision I made lightly and I’ve discussed it with the vet but it’s definitely where I separate from the majority of pet owners dealing with this.

The other challenge in all this is my perspective.  This isn’t a problem that can be faced, won, and we all move on. It’s something to be managed and I have to be able to switch my attention back to all the other challenges I’ve set myself.  The garden needs weeding, I’ve got marketing to get out, jewelry to make, and things to post that are way behind.  After a certain point, turning all this over in my mind becomes wasted effort. I should probably take a lesson from my cat; she doesn’t seem worried at all.

Technorati Tags: dealing with ambiguity, happiness in life

Happiness as Your Business Model

Technorati Tags: happiness in life, how to find happiness, life design, starting a new business

There seems to be endless debate over whether doing what you love is a Cinderella-level of fantasy or not.  The newly fledged entrepreneur’s story in a down economy like this one from CNN both laud those that take a chance and chant failure statistics like a bad Greek chorus in the background – 80% of new businesses don’t make it past the first year. It seems to be a popular topic with bloggers as well, probably because it’s something frequently on their minds as they try to see whether they can make it happen for themselves in a way that they can live with. How To Do What You Love Without Selling Your Soul doesn’t really answer the question it poses in the title and instead addresses how to market yourself without selling your soul which seems to boil down to finding a way to contribute – all well and good but I’d argue that you are in danger of making yourself more miserable by compromising the joy of your original inspiration as described in Maybe you can’t make money doing what you love. The caveat at the end of this last article though that sometimes if you just keep doing what you love the world shows up and decides to pay for it  is what seems to describe the nonconformist photographer, Michael Kenna, who simply took the pictures he wanted to take until the world caught on while managing to pay his bills working for other people. Although he still stands out for taking pictures that are unfashionably beautiful and peaceful, I don’t think he’s had to worry about the light bill recently. To quote him,  ” Life is about turning up. The more you get yourself out there, whether you wake up at 5:00 a.m. to pouring rain or not, the more you’re likely to experience the wonderful happenings that are going on all around you.” (read the Photographer’s Forum interview) Interestingly enough, I found his work when I was flipping through a magazine searching for pictures that I would wish I had taken (an exercise to find inspiration and learn from others.) While I respected many other’s work, his were the only ones that made me yearn for a higher level of skill.

I don’t believe that doing what you love for a living and for money is out of anyone’s reach, however the timeline is not altogether predictable. I think with people’s lack of confidence comes impatience, they show up once and when it doesn’t immediately work out they figure it was never meant to be and retreat to a safer but unhappy place.  Why are we so focused on happiness or a career as a destination instead of a journey?  Has anyone ever asked those 80% of out-of-business new businesses whether they regret starting it?  Did the experience give them knowledge or inspiration for the next stage of their lives? Did they try again and do something different?  Failure isn’t the end of the world, not showing up for life is.

Technorati Tags: career changes, doing what you love, gain self confidence, happiness in life, taking risks