Wouldn't it be great if we always felt like doing everything we needed to do?

A couple of weeks ago we were watching our three year old niece and her one year old brother. The one year old is an early riser. He is up and ready to go around 5 AM.

When I heard him stirring in the next room did I say, "I'm sorry, I don't want to get up right now out of this warm bed and change you - I don't feel like it and I don't want to be a hypocrite?"

Nope – I got up and plastered a big fake smile across my face, talked sweetly to the boy and took him downstairs so he would not wake his sister.

Like the little Hobbit he is, he enjoyed a “First Breakfast” of banana, Cheerios and milk. Soon we were playing on the floor and I had forgotten all about my warm bed.

Even though the United States Constitution guarantees it, even though we spend lots of time and money pursuing it, it is difficult for us to find happiness.

A couple of years ago a researcher asked 2,264 Americans this question, "What do you want most in life?" The response was nearly unanimous - everyone wanted to be happy.

The fact is: Contentment does not come naturally for most people. It must be learned.

And one of the first lessons of learning contentment is that if your contentment is dependant on perfect circumstances - you will never have contentment. If we ever hope to be happy in this life we have to learn to look beyond our day-to-day circumstances.

How do you do that?

A giant step in the right direction is to: Learn to act better that you feel. Alcoholics Anonymous says it well with their motto, "Fake it till you make it!"

A friend of mine put it this way, "Let the brains drag the guts."