Happiness, happiness

My last post brought some great comments, and inspired this post.

When I was young, this guy, Ken Dodd, was one of the biggest entertainers around. James, at least, will remember him. This was one of his most famous songs: Happiness.



It embodies a lot of my approach to life, especially when talking about measuring success in terms of happiness and not money. I do the work that I do because it makes me happy, not rich!

People comment on how happy I am, not only bloggers, but people who deal with me face to face.

I recently had a student tell me that without my happy chat each day she might not have finished her degree. How is that for sharing a smile and making a difference?

When we were doing our Christmas food shopping, the woman on the checkout commented on how jolly I was, when everyone else seemed to think that the end of the world was coming. She said I should be employed at the store to cheer up the workers!

A few days ago I was walking down the High Street and was stopped by one of those poor people who do market research. I stopped, chatted, answered her questions. She said I was the first smiling person she had seen ALL DAY! We parted and she returned to her task with renewed vigor.

Spreading a little happiness isn't really that hard, and who knows, you might start a ripple effect going, making a small part of the world just a bit nicer! We all have stuff that tries to make us sad and miserable, and there are times when even I feel like crap, but we also have plenty to feel good about, and I prefer to focus on that, something I learnt to do in my late teens when trying to fight depression.

So, my tip-top tip for today? Think a happy thought, hum a happy tune and SMILE, dammit!