Everyday PhilosophyIsn`t it strange? Everyone wants happiness, but where do we study it? We are born, We go to school.
We study math, We learn about haemoglobin and the Himalayas. But we never study happiness.
I used to ask myself, "Why are some people always happy?"
I wondered, "Are happy people smarter than the rest of us? Or are happy people just too silly to realise that they should be miserable?"
More about that later...
When I was a kid, I used to dream about the future.
When I finally got the future, I was often disappointed.
I discovered, LIFE IS HARDER THAN IT LOOKS!
I wanted to know:
"How come other people live fascinating lives?"
"How come other people are happier than me?"
I read books. I attended lecturers and semirars. I tried walking on fire.
I read about the great philosophers, I figured that they could teach me about happiness...
I came across a group of ancient Greek philosophers called the Skeptics. They said that "You can only have real peace in mind if you don`t believe anything."
But how can you believe that?
I read about Socrates - and fellow called Gorgias. Gorgias said:
a. Nothing really exists, therefore
b. if something did exists, you wouldn`t know it, therefore
c. you dont exist!
But how can you use that information?
Imagine...you get pulled over by a traffic cop, who says,
"Give me one reason why I shouldn`t book you for speeding."
And you tell him, "You dont`t exist!"
I noticed two things about philosophers:
a. most of them weren`t very happy,
b. lots of them were mathematicians!
Here`s what I have come to believe.
There are two kinds of philosophy - the academic kind, and the everyday, personal kind.
It is your everydaay, personal philosophy that really counts.
Your everyday philosophy is what you believe about everyday stuff - about work, money, worry, failure, frienshio, family , the future.
Everyday philosophy is what we use to explain life`s ups and downs: it is the foundation on which we build our life.
It`s like whtn people say...
"Everything happens for a reason", or
"Disasters are opportunities", or
"All men are bastards!"
It`s personal!
Our personal philosophy is the lens through which we view every problem and every opportunity.
Often, it is the reason that we give ourselves to persist - or quit.
People who live happily are not necessarily the smartest or the richest or the most talented. But they have a personal philosophy that serves them well.
Happy people seem to share certain philosophies on life.
=Andrew Matthew=