"Humans tend to have a relatively set point of mood." Gail Saltz, a New York City psychiatrist 

Like lots of other people, I spent yesterday spending half a billion dollars in my head.  I rarely buy lottery tickets but with such a high payout I had to ‘invest’ 5.00 towards winning.

I was all set to buy the farm from Ma and donate it back to the township so she and my brother could retire.  Pay off Ma’s Condo in Florida and set her up with a bank account she could draw from, set up college funds for a few my friends kids, set up a hefty trust fund for the Nephew so he could pick whatever life he wanted and not worry about money, build my brother’s dream house in Florida, and donate at least 30% of the original amount to charity.  Once that was all done I could take the rest and settle myself on a quiet farm in Ireland with a personal trainer, a chef, and a maid.  The cats and I would be living a nice quiet life……. 

Of course I didn’t win, but it is fun to think about what you’d do with all that LOOT because after all, your troubles would be over….. right?

On Monday I had came across an article on MSNBC that discussed how lottery millionaires are no happier after their payout and I’ve been thinking a lot about that.  Yes, my current money issues would be solved but oh how many MORE troubles would come up.    Troubles that would be much bigger and way more complicated than I think I’d want to deal with. 

The quote at the top was in the article and it really got me thinking about….happiness.  So many people talk about how they’ll be “happier when I retire”  or “Happier when I get a job and move to that new location” or “Happier when I lose 20 lbs” or “Happier if I had more money”…. But would you be happier… really?

I agree with Dr. Gail Salts, that most people have a “relatively set point of mood” and once they finally get whatever it is that they wanted, they are no happier than they were before.  They just find something ELSE to be unhappy about. 

The last 7 or 8 years have shown me that happiness comes from inside, not outside.   You can easily have everything you’ve ever wanted and still not be happy.  You can blame your unhappiness on plenty of things.  “I just can’t catch a break” “Life screws me over” “The universe seems to be against me” … no.  It just means you didn’t get things the way you wanted them and it’s YOU who are making yourself unhappy about it.  Everyone has something they are blessed with like a wonderful family, an abundance of friends who care about them, a job that pays the bills, their health, or whatever. 

If you want to be happy, learn to be happy in your head, in your skin, and in your heart.   You are the only thing that you can control, so learn to be happy with what you have and appreciate it.