Defining what is meant by "A Good Life" might be easier than actually achieving it. Is "A Good Life," like happiness, something that just happens when you're not looking and not trying? Can your journey to "A Good Life" help your children or others navigate to theirs?
Last week, Jennifer Cooper of Classic Play asked us a question: Is happiness a skill that can be taught? I, of course, answered "Totally agree! I think it has to do with learning where to focus - outward on material goods or inward on relationships and experiences. With whether you believe you can choose or not and that there are many paths.
"I think people who don't realize they can choose to be happy are caught working towards the life they think they want and complaining about the life they have. The worst thing that can happen is they wake up one day realizing they had a good life and just didn't know it and it's too late to enjoy it."
A couple of days later, a friend tweeted a quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt about happiness: "Happiness is not a goal...it's a by-product of a life well lived.”
Immediately I thought about how I mapped my journey to the realization that I have a good life to eighteen mileposts. I started wondering if they were key to me "finding" my good life or rather, simply a side effect of realizing I have a good life and "discovered" while working backwards to map my path.
Why does this matter? It forms the underlying foundation for the children's book my sister and I are writing.
Now, I'll ask you a question similar to Jennifer's:
Do you pursue a good life?
Or,
Do you wake up one day and realize you have a good life?
Or,
Do you wake up one day and realize you have a good life?
Want your good life story to be considered for one of the characters in our children's book? We're still collecting stories. Simply fill out the form at the bottom of this post or send me an email, Eden Hensley at gmail dot com.
Ciao Bella!
Eden!
