The Sunday Reflection #94 - Being happy isn't easy!

 A rather strange thought occurred to me this morning, and I thought I'd explore it further. The thought "Being happy isn't easy". You may think that is a strange thing to say, but I was contemplating the times in my life when I've been truly happy. If we remove romantic dalliances from the equation (which ultimately require a lot of hard work), I was musing on the recent rehearsal I had with The False Dots. It was exteremely productive and I went home buzzing. We completed a new song, which I absolutely love. At the end of the rehearsal, our trumpet player Tom commented as I drove him to the pub "that was hard on my voice". Tom was singing the new song. I apologised. I tend to be a bit of a slave driver when working on arrangements. Tom said "Oh no, it's great to get things together". Some of my happiest moments have come as a result of being in a band and I really don't think people appreciate how much work goes into making music.

Similarly, in my former working career, I used to work in IT support on real time payments systems. Often I ended up with the difficult jobs and fixes, the ones other people had struggled with. I used to see it as a challenge. One particular problem, I actually had a dream about the fix, woke up, checked things and realised I'd dreamed the solution. It had seemed almost impossible to fix. Sadly my boss turned down the overtime request for my time a'kip. But I used to get a real buzz and feel happy when I completed a hard job.

With our studio business, it has been a massive achievement keeping it running for  47 years. There have been times when it seemed that all was lost, especially when lockdown hit. I've learned to keep calm and work twice as hard. There is a myth that the route to happiness is to have no responsibilities and nothing to do. It would kill me. I thrive on pressure and putting myself to the test and I feel happiest when I come through. And when I fail? I try and learn and get it right. When I used to play football, I'd always play in defence. I used to love playing against skillful forwards and working out their tricks and stopping them. When I got to 33, I played against a young whippersnapper, who was incredibly quick and had great feet. Nothing I could do would stop him. I was dejected. Six months later, we played the same team and it turned out he was now a professional playing for Charlton. I felt a bit better. But it also taught me that you have to accept your limits! Knowing yourself and doing your best, is in my opinion the key to success. But for me a big part is having someone who supports me as my partner is the magic ingredient. Neither of us is perfect, but we work well as a team. I'd recommend that