How to be happy
In the online edition of the Washington Post, there’s an interesting article today on Six Ways to Be Happy with Your College Choice. It could just as easily have been called Six Ways to Be Happy With Your Work-Life Choices.
The list, based on a book called The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz, is:
1) Listen to your gut instincts — don’t over-analyze.
2) Count your blessings.
3) Be happy about “good enough” and don’t worry that you might not have achieved the absolute maximum level of happiness.
4) Regret less.
5) Remember that the grass is always greener on the other side, and don’t take it as a sign that you’ve made the wrong choice.
6) Avoid conversations about your choices with people who don’t follow the above rules.
Or as our grandparents might have said “you pays your money, and you takes your choices.”
It’s good to remember that choices are rarely permanent — you can stay home for a while, then go back to work, or vice versa — but it doesn’t do anyone good to constantly second guess themselves.
October 6th, 2004 at 8:44 am
I haven’t registered for the Post online, so I haven’t read the article, but I sure hope one of their points is “It doesn’t matter.” Seriously. For grad school, the school can matter. For undergrad, the quality of the education’s going to be fine almost anywhere, thanks to a national professor glut. And that business about smarter classmates in private schools is usually hooey. Same with access to profs, whom I’ve actually found more findable & friendly in state schools. Connections and opportunity exist everywhere. And away from the coasts, nobody gives a rat’s ass where you went to school, unless it’s their alma mater, in which case they’re pleased.