Hi everyone:

I’m Lenny Ravich and I am a Humorous Inspirational Keynote Speaker in London and Hong Kong and the author of the bestselling book, “Everlasting Optimism.”. I’m 86 and I can still dance. Loving it! Tough to walk though, OY!

What People Value Most

After writing my last article I went on an undertaking to try and find out what people value most. If our purpose and mission in life is to serve others, then I had to know what people treasured. If I could find that out I had a cracking good chance of aiding people to achieve their objectives.

When I came home I began sending out mails asking people this question. I talked to taxi drivers, people at the mall, and strangers on flights; “what do you value most in your lives?”  What do you think was the most common answer?

You’re right; family, love, money, success, relationships, friendship, and doing what we are passionate about and making a living at it. These were the most common answers to my inquiry.

The Feeling

However, if you break these things down it’s all about the emotion; the experience of… GLADNESS. If I achieve all of the love, the family, the money, the success etc.  then I will be….” happy.”

Let me give you an example. Let’s say your greatest value is family. So if you get married and raise a wonderful, loving family you will be…. that’s right…cheerful.

If you value career the most, and you have a great profession and make tremendous headway and become an astounding success I will be…right again…pleased.

Money, power, beauty, fame …it’s all the same. If you achieve what you really want, you will be happy. We live to experience the feeling of being joyous.

Aristotle said: “Happiness is the meaning and purpose in life; the whole aim and end of human experience”.

When John Lennon was in elementary school the authorities asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said, “I want to be happy.” The school officials said that John Lennon didn’t understand the question. Later in life John Lennon said that the school officials didn’t understand life.

Tal Ben Shachar Ph.D. taught a course in Happiness at Harvard University and it became the most popular development in the school of psychology. In his book “HAPPIER” he writes: “Happiness is the highest on all hierarchy of goals…”

Why is bliss our ultimate end? Silly question, isn’t it? I asked my friend Jack why he wanted to be happy and his answer was, “I’ve been miserable and I’ve been happy. I prefer happy.”

You don’t have to be Doctor of Philosophy to know that being pleased feels good.

If you search on to the internet “happiness and health” you will find people like Dr. Bernie Segal who wrote, in his best seller “Love, Medicine and Miracles” that “as a general rule, happy people don’t get sick.”

1952 Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer accords, “Happiness leads to success.”

What Happiness Equals

I began to understand and to know that happiness EQUALS good health, success, peak performance, satisfaction and wealth. That’s what I attempt to accomplish in my funny, inspirational talks in Hong Kong and London.

The only problem was that people were trying to do the opposite in order to acquire it. Instead of learning how to be joyful, we try to achieve things that would make us happy first. It doesn’t work that way.

That’s really too bad, because some of us have developed an attitude of, “If only…” “If only I had a million dollars, attained a perfect weight, got that promotion…then I would be exultant.” But why wait until we accomplish all these things? Why not study how to be happy first and watch how all these things we lack appear in our lives?  I’m going to give you a scenario.

Let’s say one year ago a woman won ten million Euro in the lottery. On that same day a man had a terrible car accident and became paralyzed from the waist down. Now let’s fast forward to a year later. Who is happier? According to Dan Gilbert’s research in his book “Stumbling on Happiness” both the woman who won ten million Euro and the man who became paraplegic after one year are on the same happiness level. They are equally content.

How can that be? Well, they say that “time heals all wounds” but does that mean that it works in reverse as well? The answer is “yes.” Sure, the guy who became paralyzed from the waist down was depressed, hopeless and in great pain because of his loss. The woman was overjoyed at her winning. But a week goes by, a month, six months and the depression goes away as the man begins to accept his situation and the woman gets used to her riches and BOOM. One year later they both return to the same happiness levels they had been prior to the events.

To Serve Each Other

Do you remember my original question in my previous blog? Since we are all on this planet to serve each other, then in order to function we must offer the world something of value. The world values happiness. The problem is that as soon as you are cheerful, the object or events that made you blissful are no longer potent. You will lose the feeling whether it is an overly joyous experience or a deadly tsunami.

Enduring Contentment

Is there a path to permanent contentment? One where we don’t have to worry about the delight we are feeling disappearing? The answer is “yes”. Do you want to know how? Then READ ON IN MY UPCOMING BLOG! www.lennyravich.org