The Secret of Happiness…that No One Is Happy With

Last week, during a seminar in Belfort, a (rather bad) question came up: what is the secret of happiness—or, anyway, its practical definition?
I gave an answer, and not one eye lit up. Their eyes were dull. Terrible to behold, and at the same time, predictable. Why? They had never put this idea into practice. Believing in a fantastic, liberating idea, and applying that idea, are two completely different things. You just have to read, see, or hear a statement in order to accept it… intellectually.
Back when I was young, I would come out of a Bruce Lee movie with my friends, and we were the world’s best kung fu masters. Out there on the sidewalk, in front of the theater, we were ready to take on an armed gang. In reality, of course, we were nothing of the sort. If I didn’t now know how difficult martial arts training is, I would still be living that illusion in my head.
When I announced last week in Belfort that the secret of happiness resides in wiping the slate clean and starting over, no one reacted. No eyes lit up because no one had ever tested this idea.
Whenever I tell people that it works very well for me to quit everything and start again from scratch, no one understands. In a few months, I will be leaving to start something very new: the Iguane K@fé, a mobile restaurant on Reunion Island. I am starting my new activity just as I did the first day of my last activity. And so on. Because when everything is going well, then it will be time to leave and start something else in a different place, or in a different way. Change in every area, going back to the work bench and starting over from scratch—that’s the secret.
Because, the sworn enemy of happiness is boredom. That is the insidious evil at the root of all unhappiness. There is nothing on earth worse than being bored with life, lazy with life. Everything stems from this evil, stress, illness, adultery, et cetera.
Because it is easy to be unhappy, but it isn’t really any harder to be happy. You just have to stop dreaming in a vacuum, vainly projecting, and take concrete action. The right time is always the present. We cannot stop time, but we can live within it (I am more than a little proud of that)!
Those who don’t change, fall into routines, which is very harmful because there is real pleasure only in action.
Action makes us meet people that we share things with, and boredom becomes impossible. On the other hand, lonely people are sad because they are waiting for happiness. Some are alone but not lonely, for they appreciate the solitude. Happiness comes to those who honor it, and honoring it means serving it.
Scientists tell us that we focus on the misfortunes that litter our lives out of a reflex to protect our children. We don’t want to forget what made us suffer so that we can transmit that information to our offspring, preparing them to face the same situations. It’s said to be encoded in our genes. I think it is, rather, a lack of initial Vigilance that we transfer to our children, an inheritance that will prevent them from experimenting with confidence in life. If I am Vigilant, and my children are, too, we don’t need to focus on misfortune.
If you have fallen asleep, hunt down boredom, routine, and laziness, and throw yourself at it. Each day, start over at the workbench. That’s the secret.