Being right was so important to me. I didn’t realize it until recently. Recently my modem was out of order after a lightning strike. I’m using telephone line for my internet access and the modem was connected to the line through a splitter.

My son and I went to buy a new modem and when we got home, I right away plug in the new modem to the splitter. We tested it and found out that it didn’t work.

“What could be the problem?” I asked my son.

“Try connecting direct to the phone jack, maybe the splitter is out of order too,” replied my son.

I did what my son has suggested and it work. Then it came to my mind that the old modem might still working. The problem was only with the splitter. Then I disconnected the new modem and connected the old modem to the phone jack. It was confirmed that the old modem was not working.

“Yahooooo,” my son and me yelled simultaneously.

Later that day I was asking myself why we were so happy. I realized that we want to be right in our decision to buy the new modem.

Being right was so important to most people. We want to be right almost all the time and we spent an enormous amount of mental energy defending our position. When we want to be right, we are making someone else wrong. The other person will be on defensive and this often created strain in the relationship between that person and us. It doesn’t mean that I’m suggesting you always give up your right to be right. There is situation where you need to defend your position. However most of the time it is about ego. You can give up your ego and people in your life will become less defensive and more loving.

Being right or be happy? Most of the time, the two doesn’t happen at the same time. It’s your choice.

I love to listen to music particularly rock. My favorite artist is The Scorpions, a rock band from Germany. I first heard their music when I was on a summer holiday in France back in 1982, the song was “Always Somewhere”. I fall in love with the song on the first listen. The Scorpions latest album, Humanity, is a continuation of the band excellent works. OK, I’m not giving a review of the album here. What I’m going to blog is what I got from listening to the powerful lyrics penned for six of the songs which made up the album.

Today I start with “time”. The Scorpions portrayed it as a wicked master in song 321.

“Time is a wicked master
Put your life into its hand
Close your eyes and it will crush you”

I got that I can’t control time and I also got that I have to make the time I wanted. I can’t wait for free time because it will never appear and my dreams will be broken into pieces.

“There’s never enough time to do everything that needs to be done, but there’s always enough time to do what is important.” – Brian Tracy

So what does time mean to you? To help you see clearer, picture these two scenarios:

Still remember the evergreen fairy tale “Cinderella”? What you were thinking about time when Cinderella has to rush out from the ballroom when the clock was ticking closer to twelve midnight? Villainous?

A jailbird in bird counting on the bars of his cell waiting for the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years to go by before he can be free again. Time passes very slowly?

To help you understand Time and manage your time better, be more productive and live a happier life, I’m providing you “The Insider’s Guide to Time Management”. It’s the ultimate time management book. Download it now, free of charge, from the “Freebies Corner”.

Everyone wants to live a happy life. Well, almost everyone. Yes you are right, there are people who chose to live a miserable life. I say once more, there are people who chose to live a miserable life. How’s that?

To many of us, we are hoping that happiness will come to us someday. Listen my friends, that someday will never come. If you want happiness, it’s NOW.

Have you heard yourself saying, “I’ll be happy when I have a million dollars.”

When you have that one million you’ll probably say, “I’ll be happy if I made another million.”

Zig Zigler once said, “Money won’t make you happy… but everybody wants to find out for themselves.”

It is not how much money you have that will make you happy, it’s how many time you give it out to make a difference in people’s life. If you don’t believe it, just try it on. But remember; don’t let other people know you’re giving the money.

“It is more blessed to give than to receive,” – Jesus

“The hand that give is better than the hand that receive,” – Mohammed.

You probably have said this, “I’ll be happy when my better half changes her/his attitude.”

However everyday, when you came back from work you’ll find the same old her. Or everyday when he came back from work, you’ll find the same old man. Sometime you think it’s better for you to remain single.

“How I wish he/she change her way of being, and my life will be better.”

Talking about change, I’ll like to quote Carol Burnett, “Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.”

Thus if you’re thinking of changing someone way of being, you’re fighting a loosing battle. The more you try to fix him/her, the more miserable you’ll be. The best thing you can do is to accept him/her as he/she is and as he/she is not and have a commitment that he/she will change himself/herself.

Being happy is a matter of choice. You can choose to be happy or unhappy at any moment in your life.

You might ask, “What do you mean I have a choice? I have no choice. I’m stuck in this situation.”

Think again, are really stuck in that situation? Consider that you like to be in that situation. Think what you’ll get as a payoff by being in that situation. Are you blaming someone, or perhaps yourself, for the situation you are in? Are you invalidating someone? Or are you trying to proof that you’re right and someone is wrong? OR you are right about how wrong you are?

I want to share what I have read in a book titled “Happiness Now”, by Andrew Matthews. He wrote about P. C. Taylor whose work is to clean New York City subway tunnels. Taylor spends 25 years of his life in the dirty, stinking, rat-infested, trash-ridden tunnels through which the trains run. Does he hate his job? Does he feel miserable? NO. Taylor loves his job very much.

He said, “Homeless people live down there in those tunnels. And I’m helping to give them a better home. And while I’m helping the homeless, I’m putting my two daughters through college!”

If you think your work is suck, think about Taylor’s job. It is your point of view that matters. Change your point of view, you’ll change your life from a miserable to a happy life. I have one good article on changing point of view, here’s the link if you choose to read; http://www.myself-help.com/Change_Your_Point_of_View.html.