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Secret To Happy Life Surprising

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: January 23, 2009

After all these years, discovering the secret to happiness in life came as something of a surprise.

My experience has been that people spend a great deal of time looking for happiness, often at great cost. And in a material world you almost expect that something as important as happiness isn't going to come cheaply.

Times have changed and my guess is that in our collapsing economy a lot of us who thought happiness was just a few years and a solid 401(k) plan away from fruition are wondering what happened. If the American Dream of owning a home - especially a McMansion in some gated community - was what happiness is all about, then the dream is largely in foreclosure.

Others equate happiness with success or celebrity, although I know people who have one or the other or both and happiness is the farthest thing from their lives.

So I was surprised when the secret came to me this week from a voice I couldn't see.

No Bluebird Of Happiness
The morning had started off badly. We have an aging cat who has decided to mark everything in sight. This time it was my shoes.

The phone had rung early from a reader who wondered why a story hadn't appeared, as if I have anything to do with how things are run at Mother Trib. I had to give a talk to a group I'd forgotten about and didn't really feel like talking to that morning. You get the picture. It was one of those days.

I turned on the TV to check out the news while I was getting ready to take a shower.

The set made a funny noise and then went black.

Now I was steaming. I figured it had to be the cable company because it is always the cable company. I blame the cable company for most of the woes of the world. I didn't have to look up the number to call. I've memorized it.

Nobody actually answers the phone when you call. Companies got rid of people who answer phones years ago and installed answering systems where an artificial voice asks you a series of questions and then transfers you to another department where you answer more questions before figuring out none of them answer the question you called about in the first place.

Naturally all customer service representatives were busy and I was put on hold.

The Magic Word

So there I am, sitting there at a low boil staring at the blank screen when an anonymous voice comes on the phone and says, "while you are waiting for our service representative, did you know that 75 percent of all service problems can be solved by rebooting your television?" The voice went on to suggest I unplug the set, wait a minute and then plug it back in.

Just to humor the voice I reached over, unplugged the set, waited a minute and plugged it back in. The set made a blooping noise and then came back on.

I hung up, sat there for a few seconds and then it came to me: Rebooting is the secret to life. I lay back down for a couple of minutes, got up again and took the dogs for a walk in the cool morning air. "I'm starting over," I said to myself, "I'm rebooting."

Of course I still had to face that group, but I was rebooted and ready for the world.

Keyword: Otto Graphs, for more of Steve Otto's musings.

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