How to Choose Happiness Right Now In Your Life

How to Choose Happiness Right Now In Your Life

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Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III here with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. We're getting a new week started, and I hope you have already gotten off to a great start. If not, remember, it's never too late to start living the life that you want to live, the life you were meant to live.

So let's start you out today with the Daily Mastermind quote of the day. You can find this in the mobile app. If you haven't downloaded the mobile app, you can get it anywhere on Google or Apple. It's a free download—no upgrades or subscriptions.

I love this quote today from Wayne Dyer: “Only the insecure strive for security. Only the insecure strive for security.”

I've definitely seen that in my life. I've seen that in the lives of other people. When people are going out of their way to create that security for themselves, they have that scarcity mindset.

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The Concept of Happiness

So today, I want to talk to you about something I think you can carry with you throughout the week, and that’s this concept of happiness.

We talk all the time about one of our prosperity pillars: “I choose to be happy.” But sometimes we take for granted how simple that concept really is.

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Robert Schuberg’s Audio on Happiness

What I’d like to do today is share with you an audio from one of my mentors, Robert Schuberg. Robert has a great way of keeping things simple and talking about the idea that we can create happiness in our life by really analyzing what it is we’re looking for—the emotions, the perception we give to things in our life, and the situations like we talked about last week.

He does such an eloquent job of it. So I’m going to play you an audio on that. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you’ll take this concept with you throughout the week. Do what you can to create and focus on happiness.

Even though you might be working toward a better life or a better version of yourself, there’s no reason you can’t enjoy peace of mind and happiness right now.

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The Pursuit of Happiness: A Misguided Notion

Without a doubt, the cornerstone of any well-conceived destiny is happiness. It’s the one thing everyone wants, and it’s available in countless forms. Yet relatively few people would claim to be happy most of the time. Why is this, when anyone can have happiness in a moment just by choosing it?

Believe it or not, part of the blame might rest with Thomas Jefferson, who did us all a disservice when he wrote in the Declaration of Independence that one of our inalienable rights should be the “pursuit of happiness.” Of course, I’d like everyone to be happy, but it’s the words “pursuit of” that are causing trouble.

Too many of us take these words literally. It reminds me of greyhounds chasing the mechanical rabbit. We’re constantly seeking happiness out there—somewhere, anywhere—in the form of material rewards or new gratifications of the senses. It’s a mindset that dictates that happiness can be derived only from sources outside of ourselves.

That mindset is reinforced by a consumer marketplace where advertisers encourage the idea that happiness is for sale. Happiness becomes a new car, living in the right neighborhood, using the right toothpaste, or drinking the right soft drink. Ultimately, the emphasis in this marketing culture is on what we don’t have.

The whole point is to make us feel unhappy enough to buy a product we think will make us happy—and it works. In our quest for happiness, we go to any length, spend any amount to get it. But like the endless pursuit itself, trying to buy happiness is an exercise in futility. It creates a vicious cycle where the things we buy may thrill us for a while, but soon they bore us. And only a newer, bigger, grander version will suffice.

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A Personal Story: Finding Happiness in Gratitude

Here’s a story from my life that reminded me where happiness ought to begin. It involves how I used to commute back and forth to work along a road so busy that I normally paid no attention to the scenery along the way.

One day, however, probably because the traffic was slower than usual, I happened to notice a large boulder at least four feet high that had been placed as the centerpiece of a garden in front of one of the houses along the road. The boulder had both a utilitarian and ornamental purpose. Because it was difficult to read house numbers on this fast-moving highway, the owners had prominently painted their house number on the boulder.

There it was in bright green letters, over a foot high—the number 3001. I could see that there were some words printed under the numbers, but the traffic was moving again and I had to go on before I could read them.

The next time I came that way, though, I made a point of slowing down long enough to read what the words under the numbers said. That simple action became one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

There, under the number 3001, were the words: “Reasons to Be Happy.”

3001 Reasons to Be Happy.

I admit, I was a little skeptical about this sentiment. At the time, I was going through a difficult period in my life, feeling more than a little sorry for myself. Honestly, I had nearly forgotten what it was like to be happy—let alone how to go about finding happiness.

So my first reaction was that I might have trouble coming up with even three reasons to be happy, let alone 3001. But those words stuck with me and wouldn’t let go.

At the next traffic light, on a whim, I decided to see how many reasons to be happy I could think of before the light turned green. To my amazement, once I got started, the reasons kept coming and coming—not only after the light turned green but throughout the remaining half hour of my commute.

I doubt that I came up with 3001, but if my trip had been any longer, I might have. One moment I was completely preoccupied with my problems, and the next I was overflowing with reasons to be grateful and happy.

It became a kind of uplifting game for me after that. Every time I passed that house, I looked for those words on the rock and started thinking of reasons to be happy. Never once did I run out of reasons before finishing my commute.

After a while, I didn’t need to be prompted by the words on the rock. I simply made it a game I played whenever I got in the car and drove anywhere.

With the help of that sign on that rock, I discovered the healing power of gratitude. Realizing how much I had to be thankful for gave me the strength I needed to sort out my problems and move forward in life.

I find this little game a tremendous help in keeping my outlook positive and preventing me from losing perspective on challenges. I’ve yet to run out of reasons to be happy—probably because new ones keep appearing.

The most compelling lesson from this experience was realizing where to look for happiness. I had forgotten that happiness does not come from the outside. You can’t chase it down. And yet, happiness is never far away.

One of life’s greatest secrets is that you can experience true happiness at any moment simply by focusing on what you already have.

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Philosophical Insights on Happiness

One of my favorite books on the subject of happiness is The Conquest of Happiness by the British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell. Russell is regarded by many as the greatest expert in logic since Aristotle, but he was also an acclaimed writer on non-scientific subjects and even received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

We owe him much for this definitive work on happiness. The Conquest of Happiness reflects Russell’s perspective from both ends of the emotional spectrum. As a young man, he endured periods of boredom and depression, even confessing that he had often contemplated suicide. Fortunately, he discovered the secrets to happiness and came to believe that with the right outlook, each passing year could be better than the last.

Russell approached happiness like a mathematician approaching an equation. He analyzed carefully what causes happiness and what causes unhappiness. Only when satisfied with the validity of his findings did he record his conclusions. He later wrote:

“Very largely, the happiness I have achieved is due to a diminishing preoccupation with myself.”

He explained that over time, his focus shifted more toward the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, and the people for whom he felt affection.

Russell concluded that each of us is responsible for our own happiness. He observed that much unhappiness comes from what he called “competitive success”—where the fear isn’t so much about failing to reach our goals but about failing to outdo others. In other words, we make ourselves miserable not just by trying to keep up with the Joneses, but by trying to outdo them.

His most important piece of advice, however, was this: stop being so preoccupied with yourself. Instead, throw yourself into passions and pursuits that connect you with the world around you.

At its core, Russell’s message is simple but profound. Happiness isn’t something you chase—it’s a byproduct of engagement, of living wholeheartedly in constructive activities that keep your mind off trivial conflicts. He warned that the very pursuit of happiness is counterproductive.

Happiness is not a butterfly to be caught in a net. It is not an “X” marked on a treasure map. It is not hidden in a coupon in the Sunday paper. Happiness comes to you when you stop chasing it and instead immerse yourself in meaningful work, genuine relationships, and gratitude for what you already have.

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Conclusion: Embrace Happiness Within

The secret to being happy begins with counting the reasons you already have to be happy and then moving forward with your productive life. There’s no need to relentlessly pursue happiness, because it is always with you.

Happiness is a decision—a mindset of gratitude, purpose, and contribution. When you focus your energy on building, learning, loving, and giving, happiness will naturally follow.

As author John Berry once beautifully expressed:

“The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.”

Let go of the chase. Happiness is already within your reach.

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