The 33% rule to happiness

I am going to approach this topic from a roundabout way. Some dear octogenarian came up to me the other day and said there are factors to happiness which are linked to life in a special way.

Before you say ‘here we go again’, just bear with one for a couple of minutes.

He said there are 24 hours in a day which are divided in three thirds of equal proportion, eight hours for work, eight hours for your family and eight hours, roughly, for sleep. Each make up 33 percent. If you succeed in getting full marks you are a happy person.

If you are satisfied in the workplace, with no bad boss bossing you around and there is no recrimination with your colleagues then you are sure to get the first 33%. But quite honestly, this is not likely to be the case, because the workplace opens up a can of worms. But he said you will be doing good if you get 25%.

Then there is 33% for your family, relatives and friends. This is an eight-hour sojourn which people have. If its ridden-free then you can get the full percentage points. He told me that people would inevitably be satisfied in their family atmosphere but I wonder.

The third 33% is sleep which is a normally human activity. Now, he says, if the first two are not satisfied then bang goes the final eight hours of the day, and me, you and him will not be able to go to sleep. This because of the baggage we carry on our shoulders, continually thinking about a bad boss, a negative colleague, or fight with your wife, husband, siblings, neighbors, friends or even parents.

You could say these are the givens of life but there is a moral truth to this tale, try and get most out of these eight-hour stretches in the day without breaking a leg so to speak, think positive and don’t let life get on top of you and sink you in, get on top of it.