Right now I am reading Aristotle’s book on ethics (download it for free on Kindle).

He said something last night that I jotted down in my journal to reflect further upon. Discussing happiness he writes, “…as it is not one swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy.”

You might have made this mistake, I have, thinking that one day or one event would make you “really happy.” Not so… at least for long.

Since last April I have been overcoming what sure looked and felt like depression. In my journey towards health and happiness I have discovered that what Aristotle wrote is true… happiness doesn’t come from one thing or one day. Believe me, I tried and consistently found myself disappointed.

And then I made a handful of important decisions. (I wrote about them in a blog post over at pastormojo.com. There is a link to that article at the end of this blog post)

Over time, as I began to live out those decisions I began the journey from funk to fun. Just the other day I told Sherri, “I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time!” I am happy, grateful, dreaming again, and discovering fresh new pockets of life that I’d forgotten about!

The lesson I learned is that happiness is the result of right actions over a long time. 

It’s like most other things:

• Want to be healthy? Eat, rest, and exercise regularly and do it for a long time.
• Want to have a great marriage? Date your spouse regularly, apologize often, work as a team, etc. and do it for a long time.

You get the point… the best things in life don’t happen overnight. They require the right actions over an extended period of time.