Happiness in an Inside Job

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

And there he is again….

And wow…..

True happiness lies within. It comes from within as well. In the past few decades I have realized that more and more. Even when I was a child I realized there was more joy in giving than in receiving.

I also realized that happiness cannot be forced. You can make yourself happy but you cannot force yourself into a state of happiness. In fact, happiness sometimes just creeps up on you and bites you in the arse.

Some people get happiness from looking at things like butterflies. They are pretty to be sure. But true happiness comes from service to others.

It is amazing how happy you can make other people by being useful, honourable and compassionate. It does not matter what your skills are it matters that you use them honourably and with compassion. I am a horticulturist. I use my skills in horticulture to change other people’s lives. That is an amazing feeling.

I belong to a group called Landscape Ontario. The executive director, Tony Di Giovanni has a great video about how we are the only industry in the WORLD that can make peoples’ lives better. Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X78LODGxy7E Every customer we have we try to make their lives better. Honestly, the bulk of our business is simply cutting lawns.

I have one customer in particular who comes out to speak with us every week we are at his house. He walks around with his hands in his pockets and you can see the look of satisfaction in his face. And that brings me happiness.

And it is not only about me. The guys that work for me get so much happiness from this one customer we have made him our last stop of the entire week.

We have a lot of customers that our staff really enjoy working at. We have a few they do not. I have challenged them to make the ones they do not enjoy into the best clients we have. They approach each client with the idea we are going to change their life. And we often can. 

One of our clients we are "working" on!

I have found that there is more personal growth in fixing problems than is in just doing the day to day.Someone said that you will be remembered for one of two things; yhe problems you make or the problems you solve.

One of my favourite snippets of poetry is by Rabindranath Tagore - "I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was duty. I acted and behold, service was joy."

Be of service. In any way you can.

Matt

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html