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The roadmap to happiness

By: Jaco de Villiers

I have been battling with this article for some time trying to find the right words, thinking about how to get the message across.

And looking for some inspiration in my library, I paged through several books. I found the answer in one of the books written by Og Mandino. Today I am very happy that I asked my dad for the whole series when he went for a course in the USA. I couldn’t find the books in South Africa.

It has bugged me for the past couple of months… what is the principle to being happy? I thought that maybe I will find it in books, or I will find it doing something else, earning more money… the list just goes on and on and on.

I realized it all comes down to one thing… choice!

Look around you. You see people hammered by failure, people giving in to the beatings of mishaps. How many of these turn to something to numb the pain? How many take the ultimate way out, the way of suicide? How many people around you are still willing to live? According to statistics there are approximately 10 000 suicides yearly in South Africa. Today there are 52 patients at Elim Rehabilitation Centre for alcohol abuse.

We have the will to choose. You can create your own map of success. You were designed to be awesome. It all lays in the choice you make.

Believe it or not, happiness is also a choice you make. Happiness comes from within. People can not make you happy; things can not make you happy. You are the only person that can make you happy. It is in your choice you make. You don’t have to settle for seconds.

How many books have you read, professing the secret to success? I admit, I have read quite a number. Yet, none of it is actually secret. We have the knowledge, but we don’t use it. You let your potential go to waste because you got knocked down so many times. You will rather let your potential rust because it is perceived too much effort to actually try. Guess what? Life won’t stand still because you feel a bit sorry for yourself. Get up, look around you and decide to be happy. Stop trying to live a life without happiness.

Something that truly amazes me is our capacity to let someone else rule our lives for us. There are so many examples; getting upset because someone cut you off this morning on the way to work, the person in front of you taking their time at the ATM. And then you turn around and blame them for making you upset. I have some interesting news for you. You are responsible. You have the ability to choose if they will upset you or not. I am not saying let people stomp all over you. I am saying, be responsible for yourself. Have that inner peace, and maintain it. Don’t give someone else the freedom to ruin it.

Do you want to give the control of your life over to something like alcohol, or someone? Or would you rather be in control of yourself, depending on your own map to success?

I am asking you a simple question, yet the results will be astronomical. What is your choice today?

You can create your own map of success. Happiness comes from within. People can not make you happy; things can not make you happy. It is in your choice you make. How many books have you read, professing the secret to success? I admit, I have read quite a number. Guess what? Stop trying to live a life without happiness.

This article was written by Jaco de Villiers. Please feel free to contact me via email jaco@rake.co.za or visit my blog www.jacodevilliers.blogspot.com I would like to hear from you. When you use this article, please give me the rightful credit, with my contact details.

Article Source: http://www.positivearticles.com. PositiveArticles.Com does not vouch for or necessarily endorse the contents of this article.


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