JOY

Below is an excerpt from an essay I wrote a few years ago. Now my 2 1/2 is 4 1/2 and daughter number two is 2. Just thought this was a good reminder for myself and I hope it helps you as well.

“Hi Daddy, I love you,” says my two and half year old daughter followed by a big hug and a kiss.  Is there a better way to get greeted after a tough day in the real estate world? My daughter doesn’t care if I sold a house today or landed a contract to build a 3,000 square foot custom home.  She doesn’t care if I lost out on a deal that I had been fighting for. All she cares about is that daddy is home. To her I am not a Realtor or custom home builder, I am daddy.  What she needs from me is love and attention, not another closing.  At two and half years she doesn’t know if we live in a new house or an old one. She doesn’t care that my car is seven years old and paid for or if it’s a brand new BMW with a six hundred a month payment. She just knows that I am her daddy.  Somewhere along the way we lose this innocence and begin to define ourselves as what we do and what we have. Children just see who we are.  She can see in my eyes and hear in my words how I am feeling.  She has the ability to know if I’m sad or happy.  When she doesn’t know she simply asks, “Daddy, are you happy?”   I almost always answer, “Yes, sweetie I am very happy.”  There are times when I am not happy and I answer with “Right now sweetie, I am not so happy, but I am still full of joy and nothing can change that.”

Joy is an eternal state of being and happiness is an emotional state of now.  I have surmised that joy comes from a spiritual relationship and inner peace. Joy is something that is constant and not disrupted by the ebb and flow of emotion.  Happiness is a state that is dependent on the feeling of now.  Happiness can come and go in an instant while joy is a choice.  I have joy in my life from my Christian faith. For you it can be religious or a sense of knowing life is bigger than you.  The choice of joy is yours.

I do believe that happiness is important and should be sought after. When you have real joy in your life happiness can be even better. When happiness fades you are not left empty because of your deep internal joy. For me you cannot find ultimate success until you discover joy.  Once you have that you can develop a higher level of success and happiness.

It’s a joyous life,