THRiViNG! Life Maps

…and it ain’t hard, if you want it, really want it, like air.

Big Daddy's Yellow '72 Impala

Let’s see I’ve been reading “How To Be Rich and Happy” for many a week now. I even admitted that I had my happy and just didn’t recognize it.

That picture there is of my grandfather. He kept popping in my mind as I was writing this post. He wanted a brand spankin’ new car. He went and bought it. He lived so many Rich and Happy moments in that car blasting those Blues 8 Tracks.

I lived just as many Rich and Happy childhood moments sitting in the front seat with him.

He took care of it like it was a baby and to him it was. He drove that car until he physical condition stopped him from driving it. It purred like a v8 kitten from 1972 to 2002.

Looking at that picture tells me he knew something about the Rich and Happy Matrix and the Rich and Happy Return.

And now Tim and John have decided to do another type of thing. If you have $119 (a book and shipping costs)  and are willing to use it to buy a copy of “How to Be Rich and Happy”, they will donate 60 books to a charity of your choice in your name or the name of someone you’d like to honor.

And the charity gets a certificate with your name on it, or whomever’s name the gift is in.

It’s one of their “Whatevers”, to get a million copies of their book into the hands of the people who could use it most.

And I have to say, my reading and working through this book has been eye opening and I thought I had my eyes pretty wide open already.

We are all story tellers and “…our stories are only true if we make them true by believing in and living them.” pg 149

What I believed was the story I saw myself living, not the story I wanted to be living. There is quite a chasm between the two in my head, yet here in the real life behind these words and pixels, the gap is not that big. It is definitely not a chasm. The story or the words I’d been using to tell the story in my head made the gap appear to be a chasm.

It’s just a little leap. It’s scary. It means, for a few suspended moments, I am airborne with nothing solid beneath me. And then it’s over, if I take the chance.

That is something “How To Be Rich and Happy” is helping me consistently decide upon, whether to take the chance.

The ability to make yes decisions based on my values and Big Five for Life is much more fun than wondering what other people are going to think about me and my actions.

Is “How To Be Rich and Happy” worth what I paid for it? In all ways yes. Even if all it ever brought me was a rich and happy memory of my grandfather. (That’s not all it’s brought me though.)

I’m still not done reading and there will be more in two weeks.

Until then, how about giving yourself the warm glow associated with helping others and put 60 copies of  “How to Be Rich and Happy” into the hands of the people who receive help from your favorite charity.

I followed a butterfly.
And the brambles through which it
lightly, elegantly flitted
scratched me, left me bleeding.

I followed a spider. It’s
eight tiny legs and invisible fangs
rushing away from me.

Hiding under the log
much too small a space for me to
discover.

I talked to the tree
climbing chipmunk.

I wanted to know
who it thought it was to be
climbing a tree.

Looking at me, it responded, chattering, curious.

I didn’t understand.

Sensing that, it ignored me and returned to stuffing
it’s cheeks full of crimson boysenberries.

I noticed the crows fighting over
the bounty one found. They cawed at
me, cawed at each other and flew
away, chasing the bounty finder,
following the food.

I tossed the ball with the dogs
until I sent it spiraling into the
same brambles that made me bleed.

I returned inside.

I’m still reading “How to Be Rich and Happy” and I’m still doing the exercises and something I realized while reading about the “Golden Hello” in Chapter 6 and “Worry Outsourcing” in Chapter 9 is …

You and I have access to as much happiness as we decide we want to have access too. As long as what we do, where we live, how we display ourselves to the world doesn’t stray too terribly far away from the values/anti-values we hold, we continue to fully believe we can be happy with what’s in front of us.

Mostly.

Most of the time.

Much of the time.

Enough of the time, that we disregard the choices for real, unconditional happiness, which are always available to us.

I’m using the pronouns we and us, when the more appropriate one is I.

Here’s what I know for certain and what was truth for me.

When I based my happiness on how and where I lived, how much money I made and could spend, how well I was liked, what I accomplished, possessed, held or desired, my happiness appeared and disappeared, like close-up magic.

I was always amazed to see it vanish, even as I had my eyes and hands on it.

However, now I know each and every moment, as long as I have a thought in my head, I can choose my happiness.

So is “How to Be Rich and Happy” going to reveal exactly what that happiness is?

No. There is no book, author, guru, system, workshop or process to do that. It’s a choice, a decision and it’s yours and it’s mine.

Will that happiness remain unchanged? Will others always agree with it?

Honestly it doesn’t matter. Your choice of happiness is yours and yours alone.

I’m still reading “How To Be Rich and Happy” not because I want the happy. I want the rich (and I know it’s not ALL about money, some yes but not all). I’ve held my happiness for a while now, even though I didn’t realize it immediately.

Are you holding yours?

Stay aware. Stay present. Choose happy. Be rich.