Happiness is something everybody in life strives for but, does anybody know what it really means to be happy. I will be the first to admit that I know little to nothing about life maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m only 19 whatever the case maybe I am smart enough to know that there’s a lot I don’t know but, I’ve never understood why people often had a checklist of things they had to accomplish before they allowed themselves to be happy. These are some of the things on the things-to-do-before-I-can-be- happy checklist: get a job, get married, buy a house and have kids.

I don’t care who you are, where you live or how much money you have I know you want to be happy. The question is: how do you get from knowing you want to be happy to actually being happy. I think people often has this notion that if they have the latest gadgets, the biggest house, a fancy car and designer clothes that then they will be happy only I wonder what happens to the man who has everything that he has ever wanted – the job, the house, the wife and three kids – but still goes to bed feeling like there’s some big secret that the world isn’t letting him in on.

The secret isn’t really a secret – not to me anyway – it is just a realization that filling you life up with things won’t get you anything except a house full of things you don’t need and a mountain of debt you don’t want and with this knowledge I derived a formula for happiness which consists of essential  two components – gratitude and giving – if you have one without  the other you won’t have balance in your life –  being grateful allows you to give and giving allows you to receive more graciously because you know how you feel when you give and so you will want the person giving you the gift to be filled with the same kind of joy and that’s why I say:

Happiness = gratitude + giving