Come on, get happy!
Yes, I know it’s easier said than done, but we should all strive for happiness in our lives. Because the fact is that we only get one shot at life on this planet, so we might as well enjoy the ride.
AskReddit users went on the record and talked about what they love about their lives.
1. Keeping time.
“My grandfather gave me a pocket watch when I was young and I fell in love with the combination of art and science in watchmaking. My parents bought me books, I read online, and I learned everything I could about watches and watchmaking.
At 16 I landed an internship at a jewelry store near my hometown and started replacing batteries and sizing watch bracelets. I decided that I wanted to be a watchmaker and high school wasn’t going to help me get there, so I graduated early and went to watchmaking school.
Now I work as a watchmaker in that same jewelry store, now in my own workshop, repairing and restoring primarily Rolex. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else doing anything else.”
2. Sounds pretty good.
“I’m 40-something, unmarried, no kids, own a condo with no mortgage (I paid it off) in a decent neighborhood. No credit card debt, no school debt, no car loans (bought it with cash), no debt of any kind. No college degree though.
I have a stable job in San Diego, California. I show up to a zero-stress air conditioned office job at noon, leave at 6pm. It’s a 10 minute drive to work in almost no traffic due to time of day. I spend most of the time at work surfing reddit, watching YouTube videos, playing chess, and watching movies.
I get paid $31/hr which is not awesome for my age but considering I have very few bills, it’s great. My job is to handle problems as they arise, which is when I drop everything and get to work. Fortunately problems don’t arise often so I have oodles of time (days, sometimes weeks) to spend goofing off online before I actually have to work for a few hours.
I’m a tall healthy male and have $220k in stocks and Zillow.com says my condo is worth just over $310k.
From home it’s a 20 min drive to the beach, 10 min drive to relaxing hiking with fresh air, lakes, nature, trees, ducks, etc. People come here to southern California to vacation, I live here.
Did I mention I have zero debt and don’t pay rent?”
3. Honest with yourself.
“Dropped outta college, learned a trade (electrician, I LOVE it!!), was finally honest with myself and realized I was gay.
Met the love of my life 5 years ago then immediately went out west to work on solar power plants for a summer. Came back and thought oh word we can get more serious now, but then bam the plant I worked at in my city shut down and I got laid off.
Took another job where I had to go like 4 hours north for a few months, got trained on some machinery, came back and was part of a small crew that opened a factory. I still work there 4 years later, and it still challenges me and keeps me on my toes, but it’s mostly easy-breezy and I still love it. We just bought a house and close on Thursday!
It’s been a long road, difficult at times sure, but it’s all finally paying off now and I am so excited.”
4. A drifter.
“There IS no story. That’s what I love about it.
I chose the easy way out. Avoiding responsibility (but taking it seriously when I had it). Always avoiding work, not getting hung up in material possessions or accomplishments.
Just a drifter, I guess. I’m old now, and can’t say I wasted a single minute from being at the beach when I could have been struggling for a buck to buy some temporary amusement with.”
5. A big turnaround.
“I used to weigh 550 pounds. I fully expected that the rest of my life would be spent alone and uncomfortable.
A doctor convinced me to try bariatric surgery. I lost 350+ pounds and now I’m out in the Rocky Mountains climbing for fun.
My low expectations still haven’t adjusted though, so every day is so much better than anything I could ever have hoped for.”
6. Life is good.
“Mine is pretty simple. Grew up poor and was adopted multiple times. Never felt wanted and did sh*tty in school.
Had a talk with a girl in my 10th grade year that truly changed my life. I just realized I was hurting myself by doing bad in school and not “caring” as no one else cared anyway so I wasn’t actually accomplishing anything. She said the only way to truly get back or even is to be successful and make a life for myself.
That’s exactly what I did, I make 6 figures, just got engaged, don’t have any kids yet and the last family that adopted me decided to keep me. I’m 31 now so that’s who I consider my family.
In all honesty, my childhood was so hard that I find adulthood a breeze; I didn’t have time to think about normal kid things like girlfriends or having the newest shoes so I treat adulthood like that too. I consider it a blessing because a lot of things that adults tend to deal with I just don’t see how it’s a big deal as I dealt with actually preventing myself from starving to death.
I took care of myself so the biggest thing in my adulthood has been opening up to the idea of taking care of others (wife, kids, etc). I sometimes wake up and look at my beautiful fiancè and think of how happy I am. Life is good.”
7. Words to live by.
“NBB (Never Be Bored) that’s my personal mantra and it’s been keeping healthy, happy, and (sometimes) wealthy my entire life.
There’s so much to do, so much to read, so many instruments to learn, so many trails to hike, there’s literally zero reasons to be bored. Boredom spawns complacency, and complacency leads to a sedentary life, and I’m convinced a sedentary life, is the root of a lot of modern problems.
I’m always moving, always working on a new personal project, always pushing at work. It’s hard at first, but you get out of it every ounce you put into it.
I love my job, I’m a writer for a major outdoor retailer. I would have never gotten this if it weren’t for NBB. I created my own website from the ground up and posted some stories of a few backpacking trips I’ve gone on. One thing led to another and now I’m sitting in my dream job at 26.
NBB people, it’s the trick to a fun, fulfilling life.”
8. A good run.
“I’m 32, married a great wife.
We decided to pick anywhere in the country we thought it’d be great to live and make it happen once we got married, so we did. We live in San Diego. I have an incredible one year old son and hope to have more kids.
My wife stays at home with the kid and finds fulfillment in her art. I lead a sales team for a small company and make a bunch of dough. Plan to retire in about five years and foster kids.
We travel quite a bit and are generally very free. The best thing, though, is I haven’t experienced meaningful loss yet. I’ve attended about 30 weddings and no funerals.
My great grandma died and my grandpa died when I was very young but I didn’t really understand death yet. Since then, no deaths of friends or family (knock on wood). Pretty incredible run and I expect this is as good as life could get. Love my family and have a great friend group.”
9. Things will get better.
“When I was 16, I got kicked out of the house for being transgender, gay and because of mental issues my parents had.
I lived next to the university library. Everyday I cycled by on my way to my special ed class. I made the promise to myself that I would fight for opportunity to follow higher education, for a new family, for a better self image.
And now, I am a first year university student with a rainbow pin on his bag, blue polished nails, living with my new self chosen family and good grades. This is het best time of my life and it was absolutely worth all the fighting, pain and disappointment.
It is good to work hard and good to believe that things will get better.”
10. Live your own story.
“Honestly, just one day I decided that I’m living my own story and that I need to focus on things as positively as I can.
My motto is “You never know why it happened”.
Also I shape my personality every day. like to try many new things.”
11. Enjoy yourself.
“28 years old, loved my life ever since post graduation and after getting my first and current job. This was during 2016/begin 2017.
I get paid quite well for my age/work field and experience. The job has super much variation. it has enough options to let me explore and grow within the organization. It’s like I hit the jackpot on this department.
I live with my brother in a big apartment in the city center, which is just nice. Don’t really have money troubles. Have enough free time to enjoy my hobbies.
The best is that I enjoy being by myself. I’m not craving for a relationship (last few just didn’t work out), it’s extremely relaxing, that I don’t mind being by myself and that i can be happy without an SO.”
12. Gratitude.
“You’re probably going to read a lot of the stories people post here and think “d*mn, all these people won the lottery of life”, and for many of them it is true.
It is much easier to be happy and content when life deals you a fair hand, and to be bitter when life doesn’t turn out the way you planned. But even those born with silver spoons in their mouths don’t always end up happy or satisfied; humans are incredibly adept at adaption, and the downside of this is that we quickly lose perspective and become absorbed in our own experience, forgetting either where we’ve come from or where those around us are at.
Which begs the question: how do we find happiness where we are now, instead of chasing the happiness we want? There are probably a few different answers to this question, but for me the answer is…
Gratitude.
When we treat even the simplest pleasures in life as joyful experiences, they become bigger than they are and minimize the negatives that surround us. When I wake up to a warm sunny day, I revel in the beauty of the world illuminated by the cosmic force that gives us life.
When I wake up to a rainy day, I make myself a delicious cup of coffee and spend some time savoring it, while appreciating the warm apartment I am blessed to be able to afford.
Next time you do something, find something, or eat something you enjoy, just take a moment to savour it. Appreciate what it does for you, and what you love about it.
I know this sounds like hippie cr*p (because it is), but if you act like the world is out to love you instead of out to get you, you’ll start to believe it.”
How are you feeling about life right now?
Good? Bad? Indifferent?
Talk to us in the comments, we’d love to hear from you.
