Choosing Happiness

One of the most difficult things about being a generally happy person is deciding what to do when encountering unhappy people.  This is not to be confused with encountering unfortunate people, because I have met many unfortunate people that are happy.  I do not believe that happiness is the result of good fortune.

It does not help that happy people often say they are lucky.  Which makes everyone else think that those people became happy because they had good fortune.  I submit that those people are happy because they choose to be happy.  I bet they made that choice long before encountered their good fortune.

Once someone has chosen to be unhappy, everything else flows from that decision, and all of their energy is invested in making others unhappy too.  The only way to help an unhappy person is to convince them that their happiness is their own responsibility.  Frankly, I have really never succeeded in doing so.  So I do what I can to be around unhappy people as little as possilbe.

I spend a significant amount of my time and whatever money I can afford helping unfortunate people.  It is very rewarding.  I have to conciously work to make sure I don't mix up the unfortunate and the unhappy, because it is only natural to want to help the unhappy people too.  It just cannot be done and it takes energy away from what good I can do for the unfortunate.