Are You Happy?

[Tony Miller]

I was thinking about posting this a while back but was prompted today by reading gssixgun's Lifetime Goal thread.

All things considered in your life...are you happy? Are you where you want to be at this point. Are their goals not yet achieved, personally, financially, spiritually, profesionally, etc..... ? Are you currently living the life you want and if not do you have a plan to change things?


Are there things you WANT to change? Are there things you WILL change?

I'm more interested in those over which we have control rather than those imposed by illiness or the like that we simply must learn to endure.

If anyone wants to share I'm sure it could serve as inspiration to others to possibly make changes themselves. I think a mention of your age and whether you have a partner in life may help too as I think we feel differently about some things as we grow older or if we share a life with someone else.

I'll join back in myself later but didn't want to set the tone for this right now.

Thanks,
Tony

[Mejnoon]

I'm kinda upset about nicking my strop last night (sorry Tony ), but otherwise I'm pretty content. I have many, many goals I have not yet achieved, in all the areas you mentioned...but I'm only 25 years old. I'm happy with where I am, and I feel that I am on the path to achieving all the things I want in life. I enjoy my work and take pride in it, and I have hobbies that are fulfilling to me. And most importantly I have wonderful people around me that I love...what more could a man ask for?

Good thread

[gssixgun]

Well obviously at this moment in time Tony I am on top of the world,
In general though yes I am pretty happy overall, I always wanted a small ranch in the mountains with my own shop and shooting range, I worked hard for 25 years in some huge Nightclubs, retired at 42 and moved to exactly that..... I have a great retirement job doing Finance for a small Ford dealership, where I can basically do nothing, until there is a deal on my desk...
I am married to a truly great woman, that I love, YA!!!! I am pretty darn happy right now !!!!!
Thanks for asking

[Black Beard]

I'm 43 now and work in law enforcement which is what I always wanted to do.

I have served just over 22 years and have under 8 to go until I can retire.

Professionaly I have acheived all the goals I set out to acheive at the start of my career. This leaves me with the problem of finding other goals to set myself as I am a goal driven individual. Str8 razor shaving is one of them.

Over time I have learnt that those nearest to you, that you thought you could trust, cannot always be trusted. That said, I have a wonderful daughter from my first marriage and I now also have a wonderful wife, whom I have been with for nearly 5 years.

Sometimes it feels like life throws you a low ball, but faith is a great support.

I consider myself very fortunate.

[thebigspendur]

I'm 60 years old and am retired from Federal law Enforcement. Some medical issues keep me from doing many of the things I had planned on doing after retirement but I just substituted other things. I have been married over 30 years and live in the southwest so all in all I really can't complain about things. I don't think I would go back and do anything differently than things worked out if I had that opportunity. So when I look at my life right now I consider myself very fortunate.

[AFDavis11]

NO! So far from happy its nuts. I'm 46 and in the grind of working like mad, living where I don't like just to make money, spending it all needlessly on stupid stuff (lots of which I don't even care about) and trying to deal with my Dad, who, for example, I took to a wedding today even though he was convinced it was a birthday party (he has been losing his mind for a few years now).

My wife is 32 but looks like she is 17 and still gets carded. We have a little bit in common (about as much as you can expect with the age gap). But I sure get weird stares anyway.

My only son died two years ago leaving me with nothing to show for the only real purpose I think a Father has.

I spend my work days consulting the government and trying to make sense out of the most horrific organizational management conflicts you could ever imagine, (sometimes its like trying to get a room full of 8 year olds to cooperate).

Every evening I work on completing a degree I only need to get ahead and write papers so that teachers that haven't accomplised a damn thing in their lives can complain about things they don't know anything about, but are amazed that I can spell correctly.

But, and this is an important one, I can still get on my motorcycle and just ride, let it all wash off me, even for a few minutes and keep going through with this stuff because, technically, I should be happy. I'm just not really sure why, but to be honest, I'm just really not.

Someday I picture me moving far, far, away and focusing on a very different set of interests, because I think this life is something you have to really be clear about as far as its meaning for you as a person.

[Ookla]

I can't complain. I have two healthy happy boys, a wife who loves me and a roof over my head, convienently located next door to my best friend since childhood. I do 90% of my work from my house leaving me with more time to spend with the aforementioned people and things I am grateful for. Sure, there's crap that gets me down, but I try to focus on the opportunity I have to spend time with my loved ones. To me, the rest is secondary.

[Mike7120]

I'm 24 years-old and I'm pretty happy where I'm at in my life. I will be earning my master's degree in the fall and I've been accepted into a PhD program at the University of Kentucky. I did an internship with the Department of Defense and I'm pretty much guaranteed a job with them after school. I don't come from a rich family, but my father worked his butt off everyday to provide for his family. I'm the first in my family to go to college and this is something that I'm proud of. I'm in debt up to my ears (school loans) but hopefully it will pay off. I'm engaged to my high school sweetheart, we have been together for nearly nine years and are still madly in love. I feel very blessed for the way things have turned out and I thank God everyday.

[mastermute]

Happy isn't really the correct word, but as someone said abve, "content" with my current situation. I have more things I'd like to achieve before I'm "happy", but life is good right now!

[icedog]

I have completely fucked my life up. I was doing pretty well with the best job I ever had until I got sick with a ruptured diverticulum. Then I spent a long time in the hospital, out of work for seven months for three major abdominal surgeries getting a foot of my large intestine removed and then a few seriously life threatening infections. I had to have a colostomy so I crapped into a bag for a while. I wrote a story about my experiences You may read it here: http://brmoroni.com/mpc/docs/Site/Cellphone.html
I got the colostomy reversed and thought things were going to turn around.

I returned to work but they cancelled my position so at fifty years old I have to update my resume and look for a job. Updating my resume with alot of highly specialized engineering experience but no degree is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Now I have a huge inscisional hernia. My belly looks like I have an ass growing from it. On the 30th of this month I go back into the hospital to have my abdominal wall disassembled and reconstructed. This will likely be the most dangerous of all the abdominal surgeries because of the large amount of scar tissue the surgeons (yes, there will be two working on me) have to plow through.

I have no savings at all because of two years out of work before landing this last gig. My retirement plan is to have a stroke and drop dead whle at work but now I lost my job so there goes that plan.

While it does suck to be me, I do have a girlfriend who stands behind me. I have a great dog. I have some talent that may help me but my sense of humor is keeping me alive. I guess while I do have my stressful moments, I am pretty much happy. Thanks for asking and thanks for reading.