How to Coach Yourself and Others Happiness Is No Accident | Page 50

THE THREE WAYS TO HAPPINESS
I have read many books offering ways to happiness. These can be categorized in three main ways.
Happiness By Description: The first of the ways to happiness
The first way is what I call the Mystic or Poetic group. These are personal accounts of people who
have reached a state of blissful happiness. They then try to explain what they have experienced...
and how they have reached that stage.
This leads to a poetic or mystical description that seems to its readers to be impossible or
unrealistic to reach.
The problem is that the gap between the reader and the author is so great that they cannot relate to
one another's experience.
The Author tries to describe how he or she reached this state. Their way to happiness. However
what worked for the Author, is not what will necessarily work for the Reader.
Happiness By Prescription: The second of the ways to happiness
The second of the ways to happiness is what I call the theory or formula route.
In this way someone or some group has a theory or formula that they believe leads to happiness for
each of us.
Every religion or philosophy is based on a theory or formula, of the best or only way to happiness.
It may be happiness in another life or world... but none the less it is happiness.
All of these believe that there are certain rules or behaviours that must be observed and kept before
you can be happy.
The major flaw with this, is that the theory or formula can be believed so deeply, that believers try
to thrust their own beliefs onto others. The most destructive acts in our history have come about
because of this theory or formula approach. Nazi Germany's attempt to impose an Aryan race was
their formula for happiness.
Many tribes, such as Native Americans and Aboriginals, have found their way of life taken away
from them. All in the name of technological progress or civilization. Which is the invader's name
for their formula to happiness.
Happiness by Observation: The third of the ways to happiness
The third of the ways to happiness is to study happy people and look for what is different from
unhappy people. Then they say this is what makes people happy.
This tends to be a lot by academics and other observers or researchers.
The problem with this is that the personality traits and behaviours displayed by happy people, may
be the result of happiness... not what has caused it. The fact of being happy may lead to that
personality trait or behaviour.

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