Do you really need an ancient Roman philosopher who has been dead for centuries tell you how to be happy? Well how about Oprah Winfrey then? Because she has this 100% earth-shattering advice for you: “Be happy with what you have; you’ll end up having more.” Wow! Is that really the case? That's deep, yet so simple! Why didn’t I think of that!
Before some lunatic put a bullet in Abraham Lincoln’s head, the President is purported to have said: “People are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Hmmmm.
If it had been Joe Schlobotnik, the guy who owns the tire shop on a corner in my small town, who said, “People are as happy as they make up their minds to be” -- it might sound like a vapid platitude. But since President Lincoln said it … well …
Perhaps Lincoln was channeling the long dead Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius who said: “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” Hmmmm again. Well, maybe I’m starting to see a pattern here – I don’t know.
Whatever the case, you can read quotes by all kinds of historic greats about how to jazz up your mind with super happy thoughts in SHADONNA RICHARDS' new book, “Think & Be Happy” an obvious play on the title of the mega-best selling book, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. There are 365 “happy thoughts” – one for each day of the year so you can charge your mind with a ray of light every day.
If you want to buy this book as a traditional book, it’s only $19.95! But as of this writing, I see it’s available as a Kindle selection for $2.99. (I downloaded my Kindle version while it was being offered for free!)
That $19.95 price is eye-popping for a guy like me, a person who ekes out a living as a writer. Why eye-popping? Because I could go to Google right now, search on “famous quotes about happiness” and instantly get a few thousand, or so, and start whipping them into shape for a full-length book. I bet I could get the whole book done in just day or two – wait a minute, I don’t “bet I could” – I know I could. Believe me, I’ve been in the writing biz for 25 years.
So a book like this by Ms. Richards, selling for $19.95, makes me want to hum once again: “Hmmmm.”
But I digress. The thing is, does it work? Does feeding your mind a happy thought from a book by a nice person like Ms. Richards – who after all is a nurse, which is a very sweet thing to be -- really make you happy?
I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe it works for some people. Of course, you can find all your own happy thoughts for free on the Internet any time – and anyone who frequents Facebook is bombarded with similar messages all the time from well-meaning Facebook friends(at least I am). But if you want to pay $19.95 or $2.99 for this book well: “It’s all a matter of the way you think about it.” (And you can quote me).
Ken Korczak is the facilitator of: THE DR. 58 MATERIAL
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