So life’s been a little wild lately. Between my boyfriend and I breaking up a couple weeks ago, to getting called in to substitute every day for a week (is that normal?), I’ve been pretty busy both physically and mentally. I finally had a day off today, and I’ve been looking over this book that someone from GMC gave me. It’s sort of an odd story, considering I don’t really know her all that well. She lives across the hall from me in Cree and one day she had to return a book or something (I fail to remember) to my room. Suddenly, we were knee deep in conversation about our lives and she told me to wait a moment. She came back with a book called A Thousand Paths to Happiness by David Baird. She told me that some of the advice wasn’t that good, but a lot of it was, and that I should flip through it some day. At that point, she didn’t know that I had already broken up with Brent, or how weird it would be returning home with nothing to do, as I used to spend pretty much every moment with him when we were home. So I found it ironic that she would give the book to me just in time when I might need it most. After all, Brent and I were together for four years.
After going through it for a while, I started writing down the quotes that made the most sense to me—the ones that I thought were especially beneficial. I figured I’d share some of them, since the friends of mine who read this who could benefit from these sentiments as well.
Happy conversation is like good music—it has the ability to reach into the deepest corners of your soul and to provide all manner of cures.
Success is an unreliable measure for happiness—it is quite possible to be successfully unhappy.
Unhappiness comes from constantly debating the outcomes of things that can’t possibly be controlled.
Time is money—stop wasting money. Time is life—stop wasting life.
If at first you don’t succeed, you are probably running about average.
You must try to become the person you would like to spend the rest of your life with.
Happiness might look small in your hands, but let it go, and you’ll realize what a big thing it actually was.
If you fear losing happiness, then you must have some happiness to lose!
What you are thinking now is contributing to the outcome of your life. So control those negative thoughts!
Do go out looking for happiness. Forget your inhibitions and rediscover life.
Happiness, like harmony in music, is when all your being comes together to complete agreement for even an instant.
There are more great people throughout history remembered for their hour of trial than their triumphs.
The optimist turns problems into opportunities. The pessimist turns opportunities into problems.
Let every action that comes toward you have a positive and creative reaction from you.
I especially like this latter one, as I personally connect it to the concept of karma, and really like the idea of being able transform whatever energies or circumstances that come toward me into something wonderful that I can output back into the world. Yes.
So thank you Ali for letting me borrow this book. It’s absolutely splendid, and it’s really helped me have a much different perspective on my circumstances. I’m truly thankful to have what I have and to be where I am. Things have changed, but I will continue to grow, and I now know I have the strength to do so.