Choose Happiness

Ten Steps to bring the magic back into your life

By

Steve Wetton

The first thing that struck me about this book was its title – Choose Happiness.  What is happiness?  Is happiness the same for everyone or is it different?  For me I think it is about contentment, peace of mind and being happy with what I have got.  I asked others and got many differing responses.  If nothing else, this book has provoked much though on my part and at this stage I hadn’t even opened it and began to read.  Not many books can do this. Would I agree with the contents?  Can a person, if fact, choose happiness? I was about to find out.

The author, Steve Wetton started to turn his life around by reading self help books and following some of the procedures described.  This was after, at the age of twenty nine, what can only be described as reaching, rock bottom.  He was jobless, homeless, divorced, without any qualifications and on the verge of suicide.  Steve says that positive thinking changed his life completely and that it can do the same for you. It is aimed primarily at two groups of people, those who have tried self help and positive thinking, to compare their experiences and those who want to improve the quality of their lives in general.  Just about all of us then!

I like the quote from one of Steve’s friends, who taught self defence.  He told his students ‘I can’t turn a budgerigar into an eagle but I can help you to become the most effective budgerigar you are ever likely to be’.  This is the point of the book – learning not to settle for less than you are worth.  Steve defines positive thinking as learning to get the best out of any situation, for everyone concerned, however bad things might appear at that moment.

Chapter one tells how it all started.  Steve was at an all time low, his best friend had died and his wife had left him, taking their son. Steve

was given a book on positive thinking with the message. ’What have you got to lose’.  Nothing, as he had already lost everything.

Step one, according to Steve is to change your attitude.  This is the beginning of a ten step programme for change, which Steve advises you use in whatever way best suits you and advocates that you change your attitude first and then your circumstances. If you change your circumstances and take your negative attitude with you, then the situation may be no better.

Step two asks the reader to look at the possibility that there might be some higher power, that is, there may be more to life than can be explained in a scientific manner. Steve goes on to give examples and asks the reader to keep an open mind.

Step three involves setting your goals and deciding what it is you want. The list the author wrote at this time seemed incredible when he read it back, totally out of reach, including foreign travel, a wonderful woman, a family and a good salary.  Yet, in later years every one of these wishes came true.  So, where to start?  Steve says that being at rock bottom actually made it easier as he had nothing to lose.  So start making your list, adding only those things you want, not that which you want to get rid of.  Of course there is much more detail in this chapter as to how to go about this process.

Step four suggests that you prepare yourself for success.  Steve says that affirmations are a vital part of this process and suggests some the reader might like to choose from. These affirmations should become part of your daily life. He reiterates that you need to change yourself before you can change your circumstances.

Choose Happiness deals with shedding ‘unwanted baggage’ both mental and physical; why hang on to that which is of no further use? The book also looks at relaxation, forgiveness and spreading happiness instead of misery.  Keeping busy and being persistent are, according to Steve, vital components of the process.  He cites the example of Edison who tried more than six thousand filaments in his attempts to create the first electric light bulb.  He did not regard this as a failure; indeed he had used his time wisely discovering six thousands ways that

did not work. This example may be a little extreme and Steve points out it is important to know when to quit, perhaps when you stop enjoying the challenge you have set yourself.

Steve hopes that his book Choose Happiness will help you.  He concludes by saying ‘No-one can force you to be happy, it really is your choice.’ The author is glad he made that choice and hopes you; the reader will choose to do the same – Choose Happiness.

I found this book to be easy to read and absorbing. Whilst I agree wholeheartedly with the concept of positive think, I did not agree with every aspect of this book, however, I did not find that this mattered. Even before beginning to read, the book, Choose Happiness by Steve Wetton, it did make me think and I find that encouraging.  It is always a positive thing when someone can turn a very negative and traumatic set of experiences into a life changing pattern that not only helped transform his own life but can also help others.

Published by Aber publishing, Books to Improve Your Life

ISBN 978-1-84285-098-5, From all good book shops & Amazon @£8.99.