Happiness is your birthright, claim it!

I would like to share a cognitive exercise with you that will

enable you to change the way you feel and experience the world.

You have to be aware that it’s your birthright to be wealthy,

happy, fulfilled, and satisfied. Outside factors have no bearing

on this – there’s abundant proof that wealth, happiness, fulfillment,

and satisfaction have nothing to do with circumstances.

Research on lottery winners indicates that a majority of

those who win big pretty much destroy their lives. Often those

who have fabulous wealth, however they got it, are extremely

unhappy. Moreover, there are people who have very little but

are extremely satisfied and happy.

In 2009, an iconic pop singer died. His album sales had

broken records, with one of them still the best-selling album of

all time. In his own way, he made a substantial difference in the

world. But he died at age fifty because he was taking so many

drugs to raise his mood, wake him up, put him to sleep – and

all this finally caused a cardiac arrest.

He was not happy. He was miserable. How could this be? He

had everything going for him. Or did he?

The Saga of W. Mitchell

In contrast, there is the amazing W. Mitchell.

One day, he was flying a plane, solo, which is a freeing and

exhilarating experience. Right after he was done, he got on his

motorcycle, in somewhat of a trance.

Mitchell suddenly realized that he was about to crash into

a box truck. Instinctively, he slid his motorcycle under the

truck. Unfortunately, his bike’s gas cap came off, and friction

caused the gas to ignite. Mitchell was caught in a ball of fire

until somebody coming out of a local car dealership saved him

by extinguishing the flames. Sixty-five percent of his body was

severely burned. He lost his fingers. He woke up two to three

weeks later in the burn unit in extreme pain. It even hurt to

breathe.

He describes what he thought to himself as he was lying

there. “Look. I can choose to think about what’s bothering me

and be miserable, or I can make the decision to focus on what’s

good about life.” He said he didn’t see it as a choice. He went on

to learn how to use his skin-grafted hands and live his life fully.

In fact, he went on to become the number-one employer in

the state of Vermont and reach multimillionaire status. Within

eight years he was married and had retired to a small town in

Colorado. He was really enjoying his life.

Mitchell owned his own airplane and loved the adventure of

flying. One day he invited some friends to go out with him. As

the plane took off, he realized that things were not looking good,

so he crash-landed. His friends jumped out of the airplane, but

he wasn’t able to. Now he was paralyzed from the waist down.

When he was in the hospital, people said, “Remember you

used to say it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do about

it? Focus on the good.”

“That’s not for me!” he replied. “That’s for people with one

problem. I have multiple problems, and now I’m paralyzed

from the waist down! There is no way I can think positive in

this situation.”

But he realized that he had to. So he found a new way of

looking at the world. He used to be able to do ten thousand

things but realized that now he could do only nine thousand

things. The choice that faced him was to focus on the one thousand

things he couldn’t do or on the nine thousand things he

could do. He knew that out of these, if he could do a couple of

hundred things well, he would have a great life.

W. Mitchell went on to become the mayor of his city; he ran

for Lieutenant Governor of Colorado and today is an extremely

wealthy, successful motivational speaker. By focusing on what

is working in his life, he’s one of the happiest people on the face

of the earth.