HOW THE CHOICE TO S.M.I.L.E. HELPED ME FIND TRUE HAPPINESS
What is happiness?
Is it the warm and fuzzy feeling you get on a sunny day? Or, maybe it’s those priceless moments that take your breath away – like the birth of a baby, watching a child graduate or seeing a close friend celebrate tying the knot to their high school sweetheart. Could it be witnessing your favorite team win the championship, taking that long-awaited family vacation, or simply being in a state of relaxation?
Our happiness comes from many different things, but we are all united by an insatiable desire to experience the joy it brings. We need happiness, but our search for it must be more than an adrenaline rush of excitement we get from the end of a work week or the number of likes we get on our Facebook post.
There was a time when I needed my happiness to be validated by others for it to mean anything.
I would stare at my calendar hoping to fill it up with meetings, concerts, festivals and hang out nights with the boys. I would eagerly anticipate phone calls or text from family and friends, so I could feel like someone was thinking of me. For years, my state of happiness was measured by acceptance, achievement and the hustle and bustle of busyness. I was burdened by the disease to please and the need to be needed, but on the inside, my heart was pleading.
I wanted my happiness to come from within; not to be manufactured by moment-to-moment living.
The breakthrough and revelation I was seeking came during an unexpected conversation with a close friend. He and I sat for hours discussing why our happiness seemed so empty despite all the professional success we were experiencing. Then he said something to me that would change my life.
“Jason, you have this amazing ability to make people smile, and I truly believe doing more of that is your key to happiness.”
I paused for a minute just to process what he said. Hearing my friend say that was equivalent to spending 20 minutes looking for your car keys only to realize they were in the place you always keep them.
I spent years looking for happiness in so many different things, never realizing the answer was right there inside of me.
After hearing my friend’s words, I made the decision to S.M.I.L.E. – Shine My Inspirational Light Everywhere. Instead of waiting to experience happiness from life’s beautiful moments, I decided to be the experience and live it out each day of my life. Imagine being invited to a party and when you show up, you realize that everyone brought all these refreshments, except you. I was the guy who would say, “Well, no one told me to bring anything to the party.”
What I have come to understand about happiness is that we have all been invited to experience it.
But the only way we can truly enjoy the happiness party, is to bring something to it. We all have something unique, wonderful and amazing to contribute. The key for me was making the decision to S.M.I.L.E., because I realized it’s not always about what happiness can do for me, but about what I can do for happiness.
Jason is an Author, Motivational Speaker and Educator from Toledo, Ohio. He is the Owner and Founder of Inspire 2 Reach Higher LLC, which provides Life Coaching, Leadership Training and Educational Programs for middle school students, high school students, college students and adults who work with young people. A 2005 graduate of Bowling Green State University, Jason earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. A lover of Community Service, Sports and Spoken Word Poetry, Jason also serves as a Teaching Faculty Member on Transformation TV and currently resides in Toledo. For more information on Jason, visit his website here.