Shortcut to Happiness

This might sound radical, and I’m not saying that this is the truth, but I invite you to try it on. Our deepest desire, to be happy, comes from being great with and for other people. Our excitement for life, the fire in our belly, the love that makes our heart skip a beat; all exist out there with everything that surrounds us.

Remember how happy you were as a child? Remember how great you were with others? How much you loved your family? When someone asked for your forgiveness, I’m sure you would have given it and then gone right back to playing. Remember how free you were with your imagination and emotions? If you wanted to hug a friend, I bet you did it without hesitation. I bet you knew exactly what you wanted to do when you grow up, back then. I bet you would have fully committed to the role of any superhero. I’m sure that life wasn’t always great, but wasn’t being happy easier back then?

Being great with other people looks like being a child, being understanding, forgiving, loving, and free with others. This will liberate you to live around your imperfections allowing you to be that superhero you know you want to be.

Then we create things with our superhero powers.

When we are creating something our confidence goes up; our view of ourselves becomes a positive one; our freedom with our thoughts opens up; people come towards us, they relate to us as someone they want in their life; opportunities present themselves; we have the power to create opportunities with people in our life — and these are all ingredients to happiness.

A tip for powerfully creating something: imagine what your creation makes possible for others.

From a smile to revolutionary art, we start to stir things up in the world.

I reiterate: imagining what would be possible for others because of what we are creating will inspire us during the process of creation. This inspiration will make us confident in our abilities and will generate power, freedom, and full self-expression which equals happiness. And who cares if what you first imagined turns out to be something completely different in the end? Something will exist in the world that didn’t before, and you will never know the full extent of its impact on the world. How great is that?

And when an action you take benefits the world, you will be completely overwhelmed and lit up by your experience of yourself as someone who creates greatness in the world.

Many of you might have seen the now classic movie, School of Rock. In 2003 it came out on the big screen, generating over $131 million worldwide. Its success goes further than the box office records: fourteen years later, after we watched the movie, my girlfriend (who wasn’t a Jack Black fan) and I couldn’t stop riffing Dewey Finn’s guitar-vocal solos. What made this an instant classic? The acting? The songs? Both are valid arguments, but nothing to be taken to the Grammys or Oscars for. In the film, before the kids go on stage, Dewey Finn (Jack Black) inspires within the students their rock and roll soul with something along the line of, “We are here to give one hell of a show!” Throughout the movie he references serving society with his music, and I believe that the production of the film truly followed this motto. How else could you get such a group of unbelievable young talent to repeat themselves over and over again, perhaps for several days, and give this banger of a concert at the end? It was all about creating one hell of a performance, melting faces and busting guts with the authenticity of their rock and roll.

Ever noticed how great it is to be around a child who is authentically interested in what is going on? Here is my shortcut to happiness: be authentically interested and curious with what is happening around you, and see where that takes you.