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幸福是其他事物的副产品。它最显而易见的源泉就是那些给我们的生活以目标的追求——任何事情，从研究昆虫到打棒球都行。我们拥有的激情越多，我们就越有可能经历更多的幸福。
A SIMPLE TRUTH ABOUT HAPPINESS
After I gave a talk on the subject of happiness, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "I wish my husband had come." As much as she loved him, she explained, it wasn't easy being married to someone so unhappy.
This woman enabled me to put into words what I had been searching for _ the 1）altruistic, as well as the personal, reasons for taking happiness seriously. I told her that each of us owes it to our family and friends to be as happy as we can be. And if you don't believe me, ask a child what it's like to grow up with an unhappy parent, or ask parents what pain they suffer if they have an unhappy child.
I was not a particularly happy child, and like most teenagers, I 2）reveled in my 3）angst. One day, however, it occurred to me that I was taking the easy way out. Anyone could be unhappy; it took no courage or effort. True achievements lay in struggling to be happy.
The 4）notion that we have to 5）work at happiness comes as news to many people. We assume it's a feeling that comes as a result of good things that just happen to us, things over which we have little or no control.
But the opposite is true: happiness is largely under our control. It is a battle to be 6）waged and not a feeling to be 7）awaited.
To achieve a happier life, it's necessary to overcome some 8）stumbling 9）blocks, three of which are:10）Comparison with Others.
Most of us compare ourselves with anyone we think is happier _ a relative, an acquaintance or, often, someone we 11)barely know. I once met a young man who 12)struck me as particularly successful and happy. He spoke of his love for his beautiful wife and their daughters, and of his joy at being a radio 13)talk show host in a city he loved. I remember thinking that he was one of those lucky few for whom everything goes 14)effortlessly right.
Then we started talking about the Internet. He blessed its existence, he told me, because he could look up information on 15)multiple sclerosis－ the terrible disease 16）afflicting his wife. I felt like a fool for assuming nothing unhappy existed in his life.
Images of Perfection.
Almost all of us have images of how life should be. The problem, of course, is that only rarely do people's jobs, 17）spouses and children 18）live up to these imagined ideals.
Here's a personal example. No one in my family had ever divorced. I assumed that marriage was 19）for life. So when my wife and I divorced after five years of marriage and three years after the birth of our son, my world 20）caved in. I was a failure in my own eyes.
I later remarried but 21）confided to my wife, Fran, that I couldn't shake the feeling that my family life had failed. She asked me what was wrong with our family now (which included her daughter from a previous marriage and my son.) I had to admit that, 22）aside from the pain of being with my son only half the time (my ex-wife and I shared 23)custody), our family life was wonderful.
"Then why don't you celebrate it?" she asked.
That's what I decided to do. But first I had to get rid of the image of a "perfect" family.
"Missing Tile" Syndrome.
One effective way of 24）sabotaging happiness is to look at something and 25）fixate on even the smallest flaw. It's like looking up at a 26）tiled ceiling and concentrating on the space where one tile is missing. As a bald man told me, "Whenever I enter a room, all I see is hair."
Once you've determined what your missing tile is, explore whether acquiring it will really make you happy. Then do one of three things: get it, replace it with a different tile, or forget about it and focus on the tiles in your life that are there.
I've spent years studying happiness, and one of the most significant conclusions I've drawn is that there is little 27）correlation between the circumstances of people's lives and how happy they are. A moment's 28）reflection should make this obvious. We all know people who have had a 29）relatively easy life yet are 30）essentially unhappy. And we know people who have suffered a great deal but generally remain happy.
The first secret is 31）gratitude. All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it's true to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy.
The second secret is realizing that happiness is a 32）by-product of something else. The most obvious sources are those 33)pursuits that give our lives purpose _ anything from studying 34）insects to playing baseball. The more passions we have, the more happiness we're likely to experience.
Finally, the belief that something 35）permanent 36）transcends us and that our existence has some larger meaning can help us be happier. We need a spiritual or religious faith, or a 37）philosophy of life.
Whatever your philosophy, it should 38）encompass this 39）truism: if you choose to find the positive in virtually every situation, you will be blessed, and if you choose to find the awful, you will be 40）cursed. As with happiness itself, this is largely your decision.
