“You will never be happy until you learn to live a true life.”

I can think of no better way to celebrate my just over 100th post than to share my model of how we can find happiness in life.

It is interesting, because most people I know (myself included) walk around looking for happiness, thinking that it can be found elsewhere, because it sure ain’t inside them.

However, what they fail to realize is that it really is, but they have so convoluted themselves, that they can no longer see it.

Think about babies.  How many unhappy babies do you know of?  Exactly, they are all happy – except for when they are in direct physical pain.

How many adults do you know that are happy?  Eh, who cares.  Are you happy?

I think I know the secret of happiness, and want to share it with you. It is glaringly obvious and simple, and eluded me until recently: get back to your baby state.

I’ll explain. Why do we all love babies so much?  Because they are innocent – and I think what underlies that – utter truth (at least when they are really young).

It is this truth that enables them to be free and happy.

You see, there is no happiness without freedom.  And there is no freedom without truth.

The problem is that we spend our lives building subtle lies upon lies which suffocate us – and make us unhappy.  I think you intuitively know I am correct.  So the way to fix the problem is to dig out of the pile of lies and be truthful with ourselves so we can find freedom and happiness.

Of course, this is easier said than done.  Lies protect us from our fears.  More to the point, lies protect us from ourselves.  Or so we think.  The truth is that while we think we are helping ourselves, we are really strangling ourselves – slowly, slowly.  (We do this a lot actually, if you think about it you’ll find other examples.)

We want truth, in fact, we can’t get enough of it in our lives – and we can’t seem to find it anywhere.

It’s for this reason that we are so enamored with “real.”  Why the Coke ad for “The Real Thing” was so effective, and why “Reality TV” is so much more amusing than scripted TV.  Real is real and we know it.

So step number one to being happy is to understand that only through truth – and living a true life – can you find happiness.