The Tigger & Eeyore In Me

Just read a portion of Gretchen Rubin's most popular entry of the month, and a swift take away from it is: Tigger and Eeyore are personalities, not persons.

I've always considered myself an Eeyore, sometimes a Rabbit because I tend to be a realist as well, but Eeyore has always been the character that called out to me because I'm most of the time a pessimist. I always look to the dark side when it comes to the unruly situations I somehow put myself into, therefore minimizing the hit of the worst case scenario when it comes.

BUT... I do notice that when I'm around fellow Eeyores, I automatically turn into a Tigger. And of course it's not to change anybody's mind about anything shitty we're in: I simply don't like the gloom brought on by too many Eeyores being in a 5-feet radius. Too many little grey rain clouds can cause an intertropical convergence zone.

To me, this says I can't box myself or anyone else as an optimist or a pessimist... or maybe even a realist or a dreamer, because as people of free will and free mind, we tend to adjust to the types of personalities that surround us at the moment. In fact, I couldn't imagine living the life of the eternal Eeyore. I'd probably drown under my own rain cloud if I did that. On the other hand, if I were with someone who's perpetually the Tigger, I'd likely wring his/her neck the first chance I get.

It's good to know that we're not all just one type of personality, that we have the innate ability to adjust when faced with certain individuals or certain situations. Question now is, do you prefer you being the Eeyore or being the Tigger?

I still love being Eeyore... and being Rabbit. I'm just forced to be Tigger sometimes.

Focus on Happy

The idle mind is the devil's workshop. I've never been a fan of the idle mind, ergo the bouts of blog entries. So, instead of being idle today, I decided to google and read up a bit about Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. (Aminin na kasing naghahanap ng pirated ebook copy eh...)

And her happiness project website led me to this.
It's an illustration by Marc Johns. Simple, precise and profound all at the same time. He calls this particular piece, "What to Focus On" and it shows that, at the end of everything, there's really just one thing... Happiness!

When you're goal is to land that new job, get that pay raise, kiss the girl, marry the boy, birth a child... they're just short-termed. Why do you want to land the new job, or get the pay raise, or kiss her, or marry him, or be a parent? There should be a deeper meaning behind it all, and that deep meaning could simply be because you want to be happy.

Heck, wanting to be happy could be your only reason for purchasing your latest book buy or for having that one song on continuous repeat on your iPod. When you focus your day-to-day on the idea of you being happy, each move you make is brings you a step closer to your happiness. You never know, the steps to get there may be fewer than you think. Maybe you were just making it complicated.