{"id":12324,"date":"2013-05-24T16:59:30","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T16:59:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-04-27T17:30:27","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T21:30:27","slug":"are_these_the_steps_to_happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/05\/24\/are_these_the_steps_to_happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Are These the Steps to Happiness?"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Folks, there\u2019s a story here from ABC News. Sometimes on Open Line Friday<\/a> we go off the beaten path, and that\u2019s why I let callers do whatever they want to do. Callers will sometimes bring us back to the beaten path. I go off of it sometimes. I use Open Line Friday for things that have nothing to do with the daily ebb and flow of politics, and I\u2019ve got a story here, it comes from ABC News, and it\u2019s entitled, “Nine Simple Steps to Happiness.” And I thought, well, let\u2019s read this, because everybody wants to be happy.<\/p>\n

Happiness is an expectation that people have. It\u2019s part of being an American. It\u2019s in the Declaration of Independence. We declared that the right to pursue happiness is a right granted by God, that it\u2019s part of the natural yearning of the human spirit. People are constantly seeking happiness. They\u2019re seeking contentment. They\u2019re seeking ways out of misery and malaise. So any time there\u2019s a story that comes along that tells people how to do it, I think it\u2019s fun to recount it and share with you some of the tips that are offered. This story starts this way.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

“A few years ago, Debbie Jankowski went hunting for a way to bring her life new joy. She found the solution in her bank account. ‘I had always been thrifty, but I decided it was time to spend money on things that would broaden my world,\u2019 says Jankowski, who\u2019s based in Philadelphia. She splurged on sightseeing in Ireland and jungle-roaming in Costa Rica with her husband, along with a yoga retreat closer to home. ‘These outings have refreshed me and given me perspective,\u2019 she says. New research confirms what Jankowski discovered: Money can buy happiness — if you spend wisely. We asked experts to explain this and other glee strategies, none of which require rose-colored glasses or doing anything with life\u2019s lemons.”<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if these tips to happiness are in order, but the number one tip, or number one step to happiness is: “Buy Some Bliss — Really. You won\u2019t find it at the mall. ‘Purchasing things like televisions, clothes and coffee machines won\u2019t make you happier overall — but buying experiences maximizes happiness,\u2019 says Michael Norton, PhD, associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and co-author of Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending. Research shows that people who purchased concert tickets, a series of crochet lessons or simply a Tuesday night dinner out were happier than those who spent their money on tangible goods.”<\/p>\n

So you can see where this is headed. That new car won\u2019t make you happy. The new flat screen won\u2019t make you happy. Tell this to the low-information voter who\u2019s out of work. New cell phone, new iPhone, that won\u2019t make you happy. That new dining room table, it won\u2019t make you happy. The new gadget, that toaster won\u2019t make you happy. You need to go live with the frogs in Costa Rica. You need to go on some sort of life-building experience.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s because we humans tend to get maximum pleasure and vitality from social bonding. Yet the payoffs start before you leave home. ‘The anticipation of an experience can be as valuable a source of happiness as the experience itself,\u2019 Norton notes.” Looking forward to that trip, to the frogs in Costa Rica, can be just as exciting as when you get there to hang out with the frogs in Costa Rica. Just looking forward to it can bring you as much joy as actually doing it. “‘And for months afterward, recalling the event continues to make you happy.'” You look forward to joining the frogs in Costa Rica, then you join the frogs in Costa Rica, and you get home from joining the frogs in Costa Rica, and you loved it all.<\/p>\n

“The cherished-memories effect can even work for outings that went awry: Other research finds that people tend to remember things as having been better than they were.”<\/p>\n

You know, that I believe. In fact, one of the Undeniable Truths of Life, nostalgia. You think back, most people, when you think back to times in your life you remember the good times, and even the bad times, you remember the good aspects of the time. The music you liked back then that brings you certain memories. I think this is actually true, that people tend to remember things as having been better than they were. I think there\u2019s a psychological element of that that is true.<\/p>\n

“Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with a little materialism every now and then, Norton says. But the emphasis is on now and then: ‘We get sick of even the most amazing things in life if we have them all the time.\u2019 Another strategy: Buy now, consume later. Economists talk about the ‘pain of paying\u2019 effect — the negative feelings of parting with our hard-earned cash. The more time that lapses between shelling out for something and getting it, the happier you\u2019ll be with it.”<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re gonna go buy a product that offers no financing and no payments for a full year, go buy it, you\u2019ll be happy. And then when the year\u2019s up and the bill comes due, then you\u2019ll be unhappy, but you\u2019ll at least have had a year of happiness without having to pay for it, which is why certain businesses offer payment plans like that. And more and more of them are. I hear a lot of people, “What the hell is that?” Nothing down, no financing, and no payment for a year. And those things sell like hotcakes because people do enjoy it, and there\u2019s a sense of not having had to pay for it for year.<\/p>\n

You can sit around here today and you can agree with tax increases on your kids and grandkids that you\u2019ll never have to pay and you\u2019ll be happy as hell that you\u2019re doing something for the deficit, when you\u2019re not doing diddly-squat. You see how this works? And there are practical political applications to all this, which is where I\u2019m going but I have to take a brief timeout. It\u2019s ABC News, folks, don\u2019t think this story has nothing to do with politics, because everything in the Drive-By Media<\/a> always has to do with politics.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, I\u2019m not gonna go through all nine steps on the keys to happiness right now, but, look, let\u2019s do the next three. Number two, simple step to happiness. “Get Older.” Well. You know I agree with that. Every phase of my life I wanted to be older. When I was 10, I wanted to be 15. When I was 15, I wanted to be 18. When I was 18, I wanted to be 21. At 21, I wanted to be 30. When I was 30, I wanted to be 40. When I was 40, I wanted to be 50. I have always wanted to be older because life gets better. And I\u2019d always seen that.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When I was young I wanted to be an old person in charge of my life, making my own money, in charge of myself with my own responsibilities. I wanted to get out from under the thumb. I wanted to be out there. In my case, it\u2019s been true. Every year has been better than the year before. Every year has been better than the year before. I\u2019m now 62. Now, I\u2019m not gonna honestly say I\u2019m looking forward to being 75, but I\u2019m not afraid of it, either. I\u2019m not sitting here wishing I was 40. I don\u2019t wish I was 30. And you fantasize about that, you\u2019d love to go back and be 30 knowing what you know now and be able to run rings around people, but you can\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s true, getting older — I\u2019m amazed how many people fear that. For me it has been right on point. These desires I\u2019ve had to be older. When I was 15, when I was 12, I wanted to hang around with adults. They were having more fun. It was just that simple. Their lives had meaning, and they weren\u2019t looked upon as a bunch of know-nothing schlubs.<\/p>\n

Number three, simple step to happiness — I love this one, too. Forget self-improvement, forget all these books about how to make yourself better. And, by the way, self-improvement has been the cornerstone of being a Baby Boomer. The Baby Boomer generation has had it so comparatively easy to their parents and grandparents. I\u2019ve always said we\u2019ve had to invent our traumas. We\u2019ve had to invent traumas to tell ourselves how hard our lives are and how stressful our lives are, and all the sacrifices that we\u2019re making. And everything being relative, lives for people today are stressful. But in a comparative sense, what our parents and grandparents as Baby Boomers had to go through, we haven\u2019t had anything like those challenges.<\/p>\n

But nevertheless, we\u2019ve invented our traumas, and we have created the same amount of stress they had. The point is, we had to. And so after we created all of our traumas, then we created the self-improvement books and this whole phenomenon of self-improvement.<\/p>\n

“Basking in what\u2019s already great about yourself is a more effective route to joy than trying to fix what\u2019s not, says Willibald Ruch, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Zurich who studies character strengths and happiness. Identify your strong suits with the free Values in Action Inventory of Strengths Survey,” that they provide here, and think about the good things about yourself. Think about what\u2019s already great instead of focusing on what\u2019s wrong with you.<\/p>\n

But we Baby Boomers have been obsessed with what\u2019s wrong with us. We Baby Boomers have been obsessed with our traumas and our trials and tribulations. We\u2019ve been obsessed with the pressures and the stresses that we face, and rather than focus on the good things that we\u2019ve got, greatness that\u2019s achievable. And it\u2019s true. I think this is very true.<\/p>\n

The other tip that I like here: “Make tough stuff work — Even layoffs and broken bones can have silver linings.” I\u2019ll never forget those three days of shows that we did with those laid-off 50-year-old white-collar workers and we took calls from those guys and then stayed in touch with them some months later. And the vast majority of them who could not go out and get jobs to replace what they had been fired from, decided to start their own businesses or at least do what they\u2019d always loved to do but never had done because they were too busy with their job. At age 50, they said they were never happier. They finally were doing what they\u2019d always wanted to do. Make tough stuff work. That\u2019s what that\u2019s wrapped up in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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