How to stay happy for the rest of your days

Notes on showing a side to ourselves that is utterly us

Aug 21, 2024

I ventured into my local café like any normal day.

The waitress was new, but she had a sweet smile. A few of the other regular faces rose as I walked towards the counter, giving each other our customary ‘Good morning’. My eyes were firmly set on my usual order of a fresh chocolate croissant and a long espresso.

And that’s when I saw him.

I looked up and over to the corner. He must have been in his late 60s. Horn-rimmed glasses. A flannel jacket. Combed back, silver hair, and one inquisitively raised eyebrow as he was furiously flicking through a stack of notepads.

I paid for my bits and found a free seat. I must have spent the next 15 minutes just watching this gentleman; utterly hypnotised in what he was doing.

Perhaps he was a lawyer typing up case notes.
Maybe he was a detective studying the writings of a potential suspect.
Could be that he was a writer himself.

Whatever it was, he was in such an intense state of focus that he didn’t even look up when one of the waiters dropped a fresh plate of toast all over the floor.

I finished my croissant, as great as ever, and needed the loo. The path there just so happened to be on the way past the table this gentleman was sat on.

I couldn’t resist a look.

As I strolled by, I caught a fleeting glimpse of the notepads. I couldn’t make out any individual words, but what I did see was utterly fascinating —

Dates.

Not recent ones either.

07/12/1983.

11/01/1984.

19/01/1984.

He also had a few photos scattered across the table of him and who I can only presume were his family, some on holiday at a beach and others around a large table dressed in food and wine. He was copying these notepads. A few seconds reading. A few seconds typing. He’d stop every couple of minutes to sip his coffee and let his weary hands rest.

I smiled as I realised what he was doing. Finished up in the loo, went to pay, and got on with the rest of my day.

When I got home, I grabbed a cigarette and a seat on my trusted porch… and I just couldn’t stop thinking about this gentleman.

He’d spent years documenting his thoughts, observations, and insights, and it was all there in paper. Why did he feel the need to type it up?

That’s when a sudden wash of calm came over me. I realised I would never know the answer to that burning question… but it didn’t really matter. The reason isn’t the important thing. Beautifully, the most important thing is the action.

He was typing up his journals onto his laptop.

When was the last time you did something because it was important to you?

I’m not talking about doing overtime because of the extra pay and credit, or fixing the hole in the garden fence because the dog keeps sneaking into the neighbours house.

Those are duties and responsibilities. We all have them, and we all need them if we want to live a life of any sort of meaning.

But there’s another side to the equation.

Going out of our way to do something because something deep within us is calling out to us to act.

For this gentleman, perhaps he wanted to type up his journals because he’d lost a bunch of them, and wanted his grandkids to have a way of knowing about his life. Paper is fickle, after all.

The other day, I woke up at the crack of dawn and went with a friend to view the sunrise in the local mountains here. I’d told him there was a part of the road I hadn’t yet visited and I fancied a gander over there.

Did I have to do this?

Not at all.

But I had an insatiable curiosity that I felt I had to act upon.

My reward was a 45-minute conversation with one of my best friends, accompanied by my good boy Django and streaks of auburn and purple dancing across the morning sky.

When we recognise these curiosities and take action to bring us the answers we desire, we create the stories that make us unique.

We show a side to ourselves that is utterly us.

Not some template or handbook that was given to us telling us what rules we should follow or which restaurant we should eat at or which latest piece of tech we should buy.

As we go deeper and deeper into the technological future, the siren for authenticity has never sung louder.

And the only way you can move towards this is when you listen to that little voice inside of yourself.

The one telling you to get that singing lesson.

The one telling you to print off those photos from your phone.

The one telling you to call your parents and ask them about their parents.

Fear of wasting our time or losing money or countless other things often creeps in to snatch these moments from us. But we allow it to do so at our own peril.

When these little instincts appear, they present themselves not only as curiosities, but as opportunities.

Opportunities for you to bring forth something truly unique into the world; not just for your own satisfaction, but for the betterment of others around you.

And when you live through these curiosities, happiness tends to tag along for the ride.

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Have a wonderful day, gang.