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Happiness Needs a Lot of Practice

One of the books I'm reading right now is Families and How to Survive Them by Robin Skynner and John Cleese. Pretty interesting stuff. The line that stands out thus far is: "happiness needs a lot of practice."

Why must we work so hard to be happy? Is happiness something that must be earned?

Comments

  1. Actually, I like that line, but tend to disagree with it. Many years ago I heard the line that went something like "life is what happens while you are making other plans". I have found that to be pretty much true in my life. Sometimes what has happened has been much better than I could have planned, and sometimes otherwise. But I think also that it is generally true that "happiness is what happens when you are not seeking too hard for happiness alone". By that I mean that if you seek happiness and only that, you are likely to be disappointed. But if you seek to accomplish important things, to be of use to others, to understand and help other people, then you are likely to find that happiness comes without effort, and without particular planning.

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