Happiness
From The Wealthy Spirit by Chellie Campbell
“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”—
Guillaume Appollinaire
Not everyone thinks life is about being happy. I do. And it is not a function of
money. Studies have shown that beyond the subsistence level, more and
more money does not equal more and more happiness. Happiness is a
choice.
Decide to be happy. Take joy in every pleasurable thing around you. Have
lots of “I can hardly waits.” In my workshop, I ask everyone to play “The Glad
Game;” to make a list of things they are grateful for. Most people write a few
things easily, then stop to think. One woman, Lee Killian, wrote furiously for
the entire time we did this exercise and completely covered her page with
notes. Everyone knew Lee was a happy person—she always had a bright
smile that lit up the room. You always looked forward to seeing her, because
you knew her happy energy would lift you up. I asked her for a copy of her
list, which included: “Me, my health, my kids, my mom, friends, home, car,
movies, music, dancing, beach, trees, animals, desert, snow, rain, sun, sleep
time, telephones, dry cleaners, perm-a-press, pens, coffee, rainbows…” I
know this list was endless.
Then I was given a book called 14,000 Things To Be Happy About by
Barbara Ann Kipfer. This woman had started making lists when she was in
the sixth grade of all the things she enjoyed in life. It’s a great spirit-lifter! I
love to just pick up the book and flip through pages at random. It always
makes me smile. Here are a few samples: “steel drums, jazz dances, leaves
in great golden drifts as crisp as beaten gold foil, flaky-crust meat loaf, hot
chocolate at an outdoor café, herb roasted chicken (a lot of her choices are
food), a scarecrow that does not work, blue topaz, at a 6 A.M. breakfast
watching the sky perform, thirsty children kissing water from a fountain,
beaver lodges, albino watermelon seeds, diamond mines, a thermos lunch,
singing along to the movie Carousel, dark blue Indian cotton, apricot
butterfly rolls, consuming M&Ms by color groups, being motioned to come sit
by someone, the meaning of a bird’s song, Sunday papers, a riot of colors…”
When was the last time you gave attention to things like that? In their book,
The 500-Year Delta, Watts Wacker and Jim Taylor give business prophesies
for the future. They state that “What society has always treasured is what is
scarce…Satisfaction and domestic contentment have rarity, and rarity, as
always, has the greatest value…If you want status, walk into a room and
announce that, amidst the ambient chaos of our times, you’re a happy
person.” One of my favorite compliments was given to me in class one day:
“Chellie, you’d have fun in a paper bag all by yourself.” Yes!
Live your life today so that, if someone said that to you, it would be true.
Today’s Affirmation: “I enjoy life and everyone around me enjoys me
enjoying life!”
A LITTLE ABOUT CHELLIE . . .
Chellie Campbell is the creator of the popular Financial Stress Reduction®
Workshops, and the author of The Wealthy Spirit and Zero to Zillionaire,
both published by Sourcebooks, Inc. She is one of Marci Shimoff's “Happy
100” and 1 of 18 who wrote a story for Marci’s current NYT bestseller Happy
for No Reason. Chellie contributed stories to Jack Canfield’s recent books
You’ve Got to Read This Book! and Life Lessons from Chicken Soup for the
Soul , and is featured in How to Run Your Business Like a Girl by Elizabeth
Cogswell Baskin and Money, A Memoir: Women, Emotions, and Cash by Liz
Perle. She is prominently quoted as a financial expert in The Los Angeles
Times, Pink, Good Housekeeping, Lifetime, Essence, Woman’s World and
more than 35 popular books. For more information, visit her web site www.
Chellie.com or email her at Chellie@Chellie.com.
Back to Inspiration page.
From The Wealthy Spirit by Chellie Campbell
“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”—
Guillaume Appollinaire
Not everyone thinks life is about being happy. I do. And it is not a function of
money. Studies have shown that beyond the subsistence level, more and
more money does not equal more and more happiness. Happiness is a
choice.
Decide to be happy. Take joy in every pleasurable thing around you. Have
lots of “I can hardly waits.” In my workshop, I ask everyone to play “The Glad
Game;” to make a list of things they are grateful for. Most people write a few
things easily, then stop to think. One woman, Lee Killian, wrote furiously for
the entire time we did this exercise and completely covered her page with
notes. Everyone knew Lee was a happy person—she always had a bright
smile that lit up the room. You always looked forward to seeing her, because
you knew her happy energy would lift you up. I asked her for a copy of her
list, which included: “Me, my health, my kids, my mom, friends, home, car,
movies, music, dancing, beach, trees, animals, desert, snow, rain, sun, sleep
time, telephones, dry cleaners, perm-a-press, pens, coffee, rainbows…” I
know this list was endless.
Then I was given a book called 14,000 Things To Be Happy About by
Barbara Ann Kipfer. This woman had started making lists when she was in
the sixth grade of all the things she enjoyed in life. It’s a great spirit-lifter! I
love to just pick up the book and flip through pages at random. It always
makes me smile. Here are a few samples: “steel drums, jazz dances, leaves
in great golden drifts as crisp as beaten gold foil, flaky-crust meat loaf, hot
chocolate at an outdoor café, herb roasted chicken (a lot of her choices are
food), a scarecrow that does not work, blue topaz, at a 6 A.M. breakfast
watching the sky perform, thirsty children kissing water from a fountain,
beaver lodges, albino watermelon seeds, diamond mines, a thermos lunch,
singing along to the movie Carousel, dark blue Indian cotton, apricot
butterfly rolls, consuming M&Ms by color groups, being motioned to come sit
by someone, the meaning of a bird’s song, Sunday papers, a riot of colors…”
When was the last time you gave attention to things like that? In their book,
The 500-Year Delta, Watts Wacker and Jim Taylor give business prophesies
for the future. They state that “What society has always treasured is what is
scarce…Satisfaction and domestic contentment have rarity, and rarity, as
always, has the greatest value…If you want status, walk into a room and
announce that, amidst the ambient chaos of our times, you’re a happy
person.” One of my favorite compliments was given to me in class one day:
“Chellie, you’d have fun in a paper bag all by yourself.” Yes!
Live your life today so that, if someone said that to you, it would be true.
Today’s Affirmation: “I enjoy life and everyone around me enjoys me
enjoying life!”
A LITTLE ABOUT CHELLIE . . .
Chellie Campbell is the creator of the popular Financial Stress Reduction®
Workshops, and the author of The Wealthy Spirit and Zero to Zillionaire,
both published by Sourcebooks, Inc. She is one of Marci Shimoff's “Happy
100” and 1 of 18 who wrote a story for Marci’s current NYT bestseller Happy
for No Reason. Chellie contributed stories to Jack Canfield’s recent books
You’ve Got to Read This Book! and Life Lessons from Chicken Soup for the
Soul , and is featured in How to Run Your Business Like a Girl by Elizabeth
Cogswell Baskin and Money, A Memoir: Women, Emotions, and Cash by Liz
Perle. She is prominently quoted as a financial expert in The Los Angeles
Times, Pink, Good Housekeeping, Lifetime, Essence, Woman’s World and
more than 35 popular books. For more information, visit her web site www.
Chellie.com or email her at Chellie@Chellie.com.
Back to Inspiration page.
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