Website owner:  James Miller

Achieving happiness in life --- a matter of the right strategies

   What is the secret to achieving a happy, successful life?  
   Finding happiness in life is largely a matter of strategy.  One 
   must choose the right strategies, make the right moves.  Life 
   is a game.  One plays the game of life the way a general fights 
   a battle or a chess player plays chess.  What do I mean?  I 
   mean that life is a sequence of many decisions and actions and 
   the content of one's life is determined to a very large extent 
   by the decisions and actions that he makes.  Selecting a life 
   mate.  That is a decision.  It calls for judgment, good sense, 
   intelligence.  If you make a good choice it will contribute 
   greatly toward a happy life; if you make a bad choice it will 
   contribute greatly toward an unhappy life.  The friends you 
   select in life; the decision to stay away from alcohol or drugs 
   or cigarettes; studying hard in school and going to college and 
   getting a college degree; staying away from the opposite sex 
   until you have completed college and have a good job; having a 
   nice disposition and getting along with people; deciding not to 
   have any children.  These are all examples of the kinds of 
   decisions and strategies that a wise and prudent person might 
   employ in playing the game of life.

   A couple of things should be noted:  1. Many of the important 
   decisions that decide the content of a person's life are made 
   in youth (i.e. how happy or unhappy a person is later in life 
   is often decided largely by the decisions and actions of his 
   youth)  2. One can make all the wrong decisions and do all the 
   wrong things just by following the unthinking path of doing 
   what comes easy and natural (i.e. following the crowd, pursuing 
   the way of pleasure, etc.); to make the right decisions calls 
   for intelligence, foresight, prudence, wisdom, self-discipline, 
   perseverance and character. 


   May 1986