Happiness vs. Failure

I came across this quote the other day, and just sent it to someone a little while ago:

“It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy,  but that we should make ourselves happy,” Immanuel Kant.

It reminds me of Buddha’s, “There is no path to happiness, happiness is the path.”  It sounds so simple doesn’t it?  So why is it so hard?  Almost everyone claims they want to be happy.  So why aren’t we all?  Could part of the issue be using our unhappiness as an excuse not to dare to pursue the dreams we want to?  Could part of it be a part of ‘happiness’ in our minds depends on ‘success’ and risking success comes with risking failure?

Ah failure… why does that one word limit so much of our growth, so much of our potential and so many of our relationships.  It is after all just one word.  It has no magical power and no ability to do anything but sit on a page and stare at us.  I don’t know when the word ‘failure’ got branded with the negative connotation it has, but I believe it is unwarranted.  Failure is the key to success.  It is a pre-requisite to achievement and to growth.  Whomever the idiot that convinced us that within our culture failure is bad was quite the talented orator.  Failure after all is nothing but a stepping stone.  It should be embraced with warmth and the knowledge that you are proceeding to grow.

“There are no failures-just experiences and your reactions to them,” Tom Krause.

“We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn’t.  Success often lies just the other side of failure,” Leo F. Buscaglia.