Jennifer Garner’s Secret

“Happiness is your own responsibility” ???

I’m sure you’ve heard that quote before. The latest person preaching it is Jennifer Garner, in a magazine interview. Sure, you say, of course a gorgeous successful actress is going to adopt that phrase. What about us? As if we didn’t have enough responsibilities! Now we have to take on our own happiness too?

Well, I have to say I agree with her. Would you give that responsibility to anyone else? Faith and lifestyle can give you the tools for happiness, but it is up to us to recognize it, own it, and hold on to it. The phrase gives us the power and permission to pursue contentment as a personal goal. The trick is, we also get to decide when we’ve achieved it.

“How have you managed to do all this?” An astonished Dean asked my Aunt, in her recent job interview for a professorship at a B.C. university. He was dumbfounded by her resume. She’s achieved a dozen people’s goals, but never stopped long enough to recognize that fact and own it. I guarantee someone is looking at your life right now and saying, “she/he must be so happy.” Well, what if there’re right? And you just haven’t stopped long enough to read your own life resume, and figure it out for yourself. My Aunt got the job. Jennifer Garner got Ben Affleck. I’m ridiculously in love and getting a chance to write. So what if all my socks (and shoes!) have holes in them and I’m recovering from pneumonia! I have every reason to be happy, and I bet you do to. Maybe, just for today, you and I can go ahead and put a checkmark next to happiness. We have enough on our to do lists; let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first!