Dec

14

Sometimes Happiness Comes From Embarrassing Situations

December 14, 2007 |

I’m not an early riser, never have been. I generally work late into the night and sleep later than most normal people. Consequently, I’m not at my best in the mornings. I wrote on Zoochblog about a recent weekend where I drove with friends from one end of Colorado to the other to participate in two separate bicycle races. The first was on Friday evening, a 7.2-mile time trial in Salida Colorado, 2.5 hours southwest of Denver, and the second was a 34-mile road race in Wray, 3.5 hours northeast of Denver at 7:30 am Sunday morning. Twelve hours of total travel time, whew!

After arriving in Wray, our group of six checked into the motel, ate dinner, and then wandered off to our rooms for the night. I went to bed early around 10:15 with my MP3 player giving me some soothing music through earphones. Since I don’t normally go to bed that early, I had hoped it would help make me drowsy and I’d sleep well. But as I lay down on my bed I found that it must have been in use for at least three decades, because my hips were a full three inches lower than my head and feet. I could just imagine the hundreds of heavy truckers who have slept there over the years.

The warm, cloudless night in Wray was less than desirable because the air-conditioner would kick on once or twice an hour. Plus, to add insult to injury, our motel sat right next to the main line of the railroad. Every couple of hours or so, a pair of diesel engines would slowly rumble into town, blow their horn several times at the intersection outside our door, and then clickity clack as hundreds cars passed by; I didn’t need any quarters for a vibrating bed.

Needless to say by 6 am when the alarm went off I hadn’t had much quality sleep. It was like I had blinders on, I could only see what was in front of me and didn’t see that very well through puffy, tired eyes, and a foggy brain not used at such dark early hours.

After the race, I returned to my motel room to shower before leaving for Denver. I was unpacking clean clothes when suddenly, I noticed that my cell phone and wallet were nowhere to be found. Franticly, I tore my travel bag apart several times, looking in every nook and cranny of the room, under the bed and in the bathroom. Larry, the fellow racer whom I shared the room with even looked in his stuff.

We had traveled to Wray with another rider named Graham, so I called him at his room to ask if he had seen them in his car. Well, he looked in the glove box and there were both the wallet and cell phone.

Earlier that morning, I had taken my wallet and phone to put in Graham’s car when we rode to his room, on the other side of the sprawling motel complex, to pump up our tires with his tire pump before the race. But, did I remember doing it? No.

You always know who your friends are when they take the liberty to tease you when you’ve done something funny, embarrassing or awkward. Well, my “friends” teased me about this “senior moment” numerous times, and we all had a good laugh over my misplaced, sleep deprived, short-term memory.

I needed those three days away from my normal routine to laugh, see different surroundings and compete on my bike (by the way, I placed 5th just out of the sprint to the finish). We all need time away to re-charge our batteries to make all of the hours we spend working worthwhile.

In order for humans to be happy, we require challenges, humor, productivity, camaraderie, friendship and love. We get some of these benefits from family and friends, and others from our workplace or avocations.

Being happy is a virtue in and of itself. As author and talk radio host Dennis Prager writes in his book “Happiness Is A Serious Problem”, we have an obligation to be happy with our family and friends.

Every Friday, at 11:00 am MDT, Prager hosts his “Happiness Hour” where he talks about happiness, and invites callers to discuss how difficult it is to be around unhappy people. They often discuss ways they’ve found to make life easier through happiness and humor.
We are so lucky in America to have many ways to enjoy life that to be chronically unhappy or angry is almost a sin.

Happiness comes in strange ways. The teasing from my friends I mentioned above made me feel closer to them, it deepened our friendship and gave us all a little humor to make the long miles go by quicker. But, it also made me happy to enjoy my life with them.

Have you ever noticed how you work harder to have fun with friends and family when you’re out together? We all want to have a good time, create happy memories and live life to it’s fullest in the moment. That is a beautiful side of humanity. We need to exercise that side more often. Smile more. Just be happy more.

Happiness is contagious. It’s like yawning; once you’ve done it, you see everyone doing it. Smiling and laughter create the same affect. But, you have to make a conscious effort to remind yourself to make it part of your day…everyday.

In the end, it’s just one man’s opinion, mine. J

Keith E. Renninson is a motivational speaker and co-author of the popular parenting tool and illustrated storybook for children, “Zooch the Pooch, My Best Friend”. Through the 1990’s with much self-examination, academic study, bicycle racing, and mountain climbing, he discovered a renewed zest of life, which included a love of metaphysics, philosophy, humor, and writing and speaking. As Keith says, “Some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue…it’s all in what you make of it.” You can read more about “Zooch the Pooch” and Keith’s new book co-authored with Mark Victor Hansen “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life”or contact Keith to speak at: http://www.zoochthepooch.com
Keith and his co-author Michael Conrad Kelley speak to teens and adults on “The Seven Simple Steps to a More Fulfilling Life.” This course focuses on how to build a successful Life Philosophy that works for each individual.

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