Happiness Life Hack (HLH) – Smiling

I would like to start today off with quoting a song by George Watsky;

 

“Everything is A-O-K,

Cause I’m as strong as an O-A-K”

 

I wanted to start with that because today is a day of learning for you readers. It’s been called “karma”, “the law of attraction” among many other things. Simply, I like to call it happiness.

 

I firmly believe that holding a positive attitude about everything thrown at you during the day will result in a good day no matter what. Yes, sometimes it is a lot harder than others, but it is always possible. You just need to keep on smiling.

 

I know that when times get tough, it is difficult to keep on smiling. But when the day is over, you will never regret it. Who has ever said, “I’m too happy” in a bad way? I mean, besides no one ever! Happiness is contagious and it reflects the work you do and how you live the day-to-day life. If you’re always smiling, it’s easy to be around you and it’s fun. People will want to hang out with you and spend time with you because you are positive. And hey, who doesn’t like friends, right?

 

I can give you an example from my personal life about a day that I kept on smiling. So, I woke up and got ready for work (at the ass crack of dawn mind you) and I’ve never been a morning person until recently. I was working at a hotel that I had to drive to and when I came outside to get in my car, I had two tires slashed on my car. I kept an open mind, even in the morning, and started smiling. I remember thinking, well shit, here today goes.” So I found a ride to work and back for the day, and let me tell you, work was no better. I was working with a girl that thinks she is so religious that she is like Jesus’ second coming in a woman’s body. But the thing, if you ask anyone else, she is a terrible person who just acts like she is a good girl.

 

Well, she did NOTHING at work that day but read the Bible online and participate in discussions about it. She then, when the day was ending, said to me, “Since you haven’t done anything today, would you go park these last cars then balance the cash drawer”. Okay bitch, I did EVERYTHING today, so I told her to “suck it” with a big smile on my face. She acted like I told her I was going to rape her whole family including the family dog and went off the deep end cussing me out in front of customers who were walking in the door and everything. She even went and told management about what I said and how she thought I meant it. Well, I closed out the shift for us with her angrily leaving work early. After I clocked out, management told me to come into the office, which I did, and we all LAUGHED about what happened. She then got written up the next day for not doing anything, cussing me out, and pushing religion on people in the workplace. She got fired two days later.

 

Then when I got home that day, I realized I still need to fix my car, and I was broke. So I called around, still being positive, and talked with a guy who said that he liked how I was in such a great mood, even though I had my tires cut and we got into talking about the rest of my day, all whilst smiling and laughing. The guy fixed both of my tires for FREE. It turned from a bad day, into one of the best days I have had in a long time.

 

My point is this; if you stay positive throughout whatever shit the day throws at you, good things happen. They may be big or they may be small. But they add up in the long run, and it’s always worth it to be happy.

 

So keep on smiling, there is nothing wrong with being happy. And to quote to the great Ben Roy, “Go through the window”.

Growing Up vs Growing Old

As another birthday comes closer and closer, I begin to think, “Shit, I’m going to die soon.” Yes, to most I may still be a youngling, but hey, I don’t have “good genes” or “ideal health”. I look around and see the elderly taking the leap into the unknown, and yet, I am not afraid. I do not personally think there is a reason to fear death. Even if my personal death comes painful, it all has to come to end sometime. In the book “Tough Sh*t” by my long time hero, Kevin Smith, he wrote, “…even good men die screaming…” and I must say, that one sentence changed my life forever.

Now I’m not saying to live a life where you raise total hell and take no prisoners in a bad perspective. What I am saying is don’t just live life but LIVE life, aka, the difference between growing UP and growing OLD.

I don’t mind my metabolism going to hell and getting a belly that goes over my belt, or my hair falling out, or my skin wrinkling around the wrist, or not being able to wear boxers with shorts in fear of indecent exposure because my genitals hang too low (like the scene from jackass). It’s perfectly fine taking pills 19 times a day and having to sit down in a shower because “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

But I’ll be damned the day I walk by a vacant swing set and don’t sit my fat, bald, wrinkly ass down and enjoy the view come and go as I go up and down on one of the sweetest childhood memories EVERYONE has. I’ll be damned the day a little girl walks up to me and I’m “too old” to “answer a ringing toy phone” she hands me. I’ll be damned the day I grab the Cheerios for “heart health” instead of grabbing the box of Fruity Pebbles cause they just taste good. I’ll be damned the day I skip through the cartoon section of the TV guide. And you bet your sweet ass that I’ll be damned the day that I say, “No thanks, I’ve had enough Cheetos”.

Life is not all about the big picture. In the long run, yes because it is about the career and family and what have you, but when is the last time you thought about today? Just enjoyed the little things? Keep the little kid inside of you and never let it go. You have to grow up to a certain extent of course, you have to get a job and so on to survive this world, but who said you can’t still stick some chips in your PBJ at lunch? If someone says anything, just feel bad for them, because they are already dead inside fighting to stay alive.