16 Oct A Happiness Formula
A HAPPINESS FORMULA
By Lionel Ketchian (www.happinessclub.com)
Yes, a happiness formula that will help you not only understand happiness, but also how it can work for you. It is called the DOC Formula for Happiness. The letter D is for DECISION, O is for OBSTACLE, AND C is for CHOICE. The formula goes like this, Happiness = Decision – Obstacle + Choice. You can now become your own Happiness Doctor. Your decision to be happy is negatively affected by obstacles and positively controlled by your choice.
You must make the decision to be happy now. The moment you make a decision, you create power. Your life is too important to be left to mere chance. By making this decision you change from passive to powerful, and this enables you to carry out your decision. Anthony Robbins puts it well: “It’s in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”
Let’s start off with your decision to be happy. Now you have 100% happiness. If you don’t start off with happiness, you’re never going to find happiness. Happiness is an inside job. Everyone can be happy right now, even when faced with problems.
Let’s say you are 100% happy now. Very soon an OBSTACLE in life presents itself. It will overwhelm you if
it’s handled in the wrong way. It can be overcome, if handled the right way. The first step is to understand that life is presenting something to you that you are seeing as an obstacle. The second part of the formula is, Decision – (minus) Obstacle. You have to deduct the obstacle from the 100% happiness you had.
Let’s say that having no problem represents 100 on the happiness scale, and having a very big problem represents 100 on the obstacle scale. Than if you have a flat tire, and it represents 50 on your obstacle scale. You have now deducted 50 from your 100% happiness and you are left with only 50% of your happiness. Once you are under 51%, you have given up controlling interest in managing your life. Unhappiness is lack of control. Happiness is being in control.
If you treat a problem on a scale of 0-100 as a 90, where 0 = a sledgehammer and 90 = a feather. You are better off hitting yourself with the feather than the sledgehammer. Find a way to reduce the problem in your mind by making the right choice so you do not hurt yourself. The feather allows you to be light on yourself, and more accepting of things, and change things if you are able.
What happens when you have an obstacle? You run up against that obstacle and you lose your happiness. Don’t let that obstacle take your happiness and don’t make the obstacle more than it is. Don’t make the problem more important than your happiness. Why not accept it as just something that can happen to anyone. This time around it happened to you. It is what you do about it that really matters.
So, what do we do about it? The last part is Obstacle + (plus) Choice. What choice you make will determine how much happiness and power you will have. You will not allow the problem to determine your happiness and power.
You can even make a choice to live with a problem you cannot change. This immediately raises your acceptance of the problem and gives you back the happiness you were losing. You are back in control again, balancing the scales to 100%,in your favor. When you think more about the problem than the solution, you lose all control. Don’t get wrapped up in the problem and lose your happiness. Take control of your life by making the best choices.
Happiness = Decision – Obstacle + Choice. You must have the intention, make the decision to be happy, handle the obstacles that come your way, and by make the best choices you can. You must want happiness even more than you want to get rid of the problem!
Think of the happiness formula where “decision” is the highway, “obstacles” might be the weather, traffic and construction delays, accidents, etc, and “choice” is the steering wheel. As long as you stay on the highway and have taken hold of the steering wheel, you have ultimate control over your destiny. The obstacles along the way can increase your driving proficiency, and make you a better driver. By taking control you’re able to see what other people call problems, are really just life’s little bumps in the road.
Two thousand years ago during the years 55-135 AD, a Greek slave named Epictetus became a philosopher. He said these profound words: “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” Why does it take mankind so long to learn that happiness is in our control? I don’t have the answer to that question, but I do have the Formula for Happiness.
Being happy will sustain you for the rest of your life. We live in a country that gives us the freedom to carry out our own pursuit of happiness. You have the power to make your life the best it can be! CHOICE is your God given right. Choose wisely, choose well, and by all means, always choose happiness!
The next time someone tells you they can’t be happy. Show them the DOC Formula for Happiness and tell them…do the math!