I was checking out the candidates for Oprah’s “Own Your Own TV show on OWN” contest the other day and there was a little link posted on the side that caught my attention. It said “Happiness Test!”

I love these kinds of things. Most of them I find pointless, but who knows, it’s one of OPRAH’s favorites after all. So, I took the test. The test states a positive statement, and then asks you to choose which option most accurately describes where you’re at in accordance to that statement. For instance, “I know who I am, and I like myself. Not true, rarely true, sometimes true, mostly true, very true”. I scored a 66, the second highest out of a hierarchy of four, apparently meaning “I’m getting there”. I found the test itself entertaining, but useless for a couple reasons. I think surveys in general have a fatal dependency on an individual to be honest with his/herself and/or know their exact feelings on matters, especially pertaining to themselves. Second, the scoring and what it tells about your happy level and such I feel are stupid. ANYWAY, there were, however, some interesting follow-up articles about ten of these statements written by an ambitious doctor pursuing the laudable quest of understanding the most sought after state of being in human existence.

As I scrolled through, the phrase that was got me thinking was what I thought to be the crux of his happy spiel: “You need to recognize the difference between chasing happiness and choosing happiness”.  A wise man once told me that a man is a product of his choices. It’s a motto I love and keep in my mind frequently, but I never thought of happiness in this way! Choose to be happy!? Hm.

A little light bulb went off in my head. I’d always considered myself an avid supporter of human beings giving themselves the liberty to do something that they love for a living. I realized in my own experience however, that I have a tendency to imprison my simple, beautiful, authentic dreams in complex, idealized thoughts and plans. So rather than doing the thing, I’m sitting there thinking about how I want to do the thing. Suddenly that the thing turns into an entirely different thing which is not the thing I love doing, but an entirely different thing leading to confusion and depression at the fact that my gut feeling could possibly be wrong, which I eventually find is actually right, just clouded by the nonsense of not actually doing the thing. I then naturally return to the original thing I love again because it is, in its purest form, that thing! Follow me? Long story short, ENGAGE in the activities you are passionate about.

Here’s the link by the way: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/The-Happiness-Test

Have fun.

jcagon