 Hi, welcome to Seymour's World commentary on Think Tech Hawaii. You can find all my commentaries and Seymour's World episodes on the Think Tech Hawaii website. I welcome your comments by email, text, or phone, and you can reach me at Seymour.Kassimersky at gmail.com or 808-551-3222. Our topic today is the key to happiness. I just returned from Florida and Dallas. As you know, I love my exercise and believe very strongly that this is a part of my cancer treatment that I must never stop. So I was playing tennis and thinking that I am still 40, maybe 45. I ran for a ball that was well out of my reach. I said you can do it and did it, but all of a sudden I felt a pop in my leg. I hit the fence, hit the ball back, and for those of you who will remain nameless and shameless, yes, I got the ball back. And we made the point, but unfortunately, I tore my hamstring. Here is a picture. Now when I tore my hamstring, it hurt. I couldn't walk. And every expletive known to man was uttered by yours truly. Yes, even the ones that you're thinking about. I was pissed. I was angry. I was frustrated. You name it. I was definitely unhappy to be mildly accurate. People have been trying to figure out the key to happiness probably as long as humans have walked the earth. Today, I will toss my two cents into that discussion. In order to be happy, I believe that we need to change how we approach life by moving from frustration, as in my leg, to acceptance, then to gratitude. Let me explain. Some of us live in a constant state of frustration. If something unpleasant happens, we automatically become sour and irritated. Have you ever been stuck in the HOV lane and someone in front of you is going 30 miles per hour below the speed limit? Or if a friend or family member is rude to you, we obsess over the unkind words that were said. If we get an unexpected bill, we immediately feel stressed out. When we live like that, not only are we frustrated, but we are unhappy. Why? Because we expect life to be perfect, and it never will be. Acceptance is the first step in leaving the world of frustration. When we accept life, we accept that it is imperfect. That is hard to do, but realize that no one's life is perfect. I know that some people seem to have the perfect life. However, you would be surprised by how deceiving appearances can be. I know of marriages that look terrific on the outside, but in reality they are cold and distant. And then there are those people who seem to have everything. A beautiful home, luxury cars, expensive clothing. However, what you don't know is that they are up to their earlobes in debt. Very little is as it appears. The only thing that we can know for sure is that no one has the perfect life. People who have accepted life's imperfection know that it isn't what happens to them that matters as much as how they handle it. So if they miss their train, they shrug their shoulders, read their newspapers, and wait for the next one. If someone is rude to them, they remember that other people have personal issues and ignore the behavior. Other days aren't ruined by matters outside their control, and as a result, they are content. Once we have accepted that life is imperfect, we then can learn to live in gratitude. The challenge is how? Sure, I can accept a miss train, but how can I be grateful for the miss train? How can I be grateful if someone has hurt my feelings? How can I be grateful if I lose my job? How can I be grateful even though everything in my life isn't as I would like it to be? The reality is that we aren't going to be grateful for the bad things that happen to us. Perhaps in the future, a lost job might lead to a better opportunity, and in retrospect, I will be grateful. However, at the time I lose my job, I'm not going to be grateful, no matter how spiritually evolved I am. Likewise, if someone hurts my feelings, I'm not going to be grateful for that person, even if down the road they experience results in my being stronger and more compassionate. The key is to view the unfortunate things that happen to us in the context of gratitude. For example, if I'm grateful for all the good things in my life, a place to live, my health, financial security, then a torn hamstring is not a big deal. Or if someone insults me, it doesn't matter to me because I am grateful for all the other positive relationships in my life. Gratitude allows us to view occasional problems as merely a small part of an otherwise blessed life. When we live in gratitude, we in effect are insulated from the frustrations of life. Grateful people almost always have a suit of armor which no person or event can penetrate. Unkind words and unfair circumstances are no match for a mind that lives in gratitude. For the grateful person, the bumps in the road of life are just bumps. They aren't roadblocks. Making the transition from frustration to acceptance and then gratitude is hard. Some people live their lives never getting out of the frustration zone. Others end up in acceptance. But if we want to create a life of happiness, that means approaching each day with a spirit of gratitude. My name is Seymour Kazimurski. You're watching a commentary of Seymour's World. You can find all my commentaries in Seymour's World episodes on the ThinkTech Hawaii website. Comment your comments by email, text or phone and you can reach me by email at Seymour.Kazimurski at gmail.com or 808-551-3222. Have a wonderful day. Aloha.