- Make little things bother you: don’t just let them, make them!
- Lose your perspective of things, and keep it lost. Don’t put first things first.
- Get yourself a good worry – one about which you cannot do anything but worry.
- Be a perfectionist: condemn yourself and others for not achieving perfection.
- Be right, always right, perfectly right all the time. Be the only one who is right and be rigid about your rightness.
- Don’t trust or believe people or accept them at anything but their worst and weakest. Be suspicious. Impute ulterior motives to them.
- Always compare yourself unfavorably to others, which is the guarantee of instant misery.
- Take personally, with a chip on your shoulder, everything that happens to you that you don’t like.
- Don’t give yourself wholeheartedly or enthusiastically to anyone or to anything.
- Make happiness the aim of your life instead of bracing for life’s barbs through a “bitter with the sweet” philosophy.
Use this prescription regularly for a while and you will be guaranteed unhappiness.
Benjamin Franklin, with his insight and wit, was a man who thoroughly enjoyed trimming hecklers down to size. During the early days of the American Republic, he spoke many times on the Constitution of the United States.
After one such stirring speech, an rude man rose and boldly walked a few paces toward the platform. “Aw, them words don’t mean nothin’ a-tall!” he shouted at Franklin. “Where’s all that happiness you say it guarantees us?”
Franklin smiled benevolently at the questioner, and quickly, blandly, Old Ben replied, “My friend, the Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it for yourself!”
How to become happy?
Psalm 84:12 ~ O Lord of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.
Psalm 128:2 ~ You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.
Psalm 144:15 ~ Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall; happy are the people whose God is the Lord.
Proverbs 8:32 ~ Happy are those who keep my ways.
Proverbs 14:21 ~ Happy are those who are kind to the poor.
Proverbs 20:7 ~ The righteous walk in integrity – happy are the children who follow them!
