I listened to interesting interviews with a couple of music superstars recently. Each provided some happiness lessons.
The first was Billy Joel. When talking about his song Vienna, explained that the message of the lyric about Vienna waiting for you means life is a marathon, and just because you don’t get to visit a place you are longing to get to now, doesn’t mean you won’t get there some day.
The song Movin’ Out, has a bit clearer message. It starts with Anthony working in a grocery store, saving his money for someday. Joel explained it’s about pursuing your passion (a message which I am passionate about).
The second was someone who has become inextricably tied to happiness this past year: Pharrell Williams, whose song Happy, is one of the biggest hits of all time. (Before I started to write this post, I had never seen the video for the song, so I checked it out. At that time it had already been viewed on YouTube nearly 300 million times!)
During the interview, Williams was asked if he was happy. He said he is more grateful than happy. (You know how I feel about gratitude as a happiness strategy.)
He was asked if he ever has bad days. He said he does, but he always says to himself, it could be worse (meaning, whatever is impacting his day is minor; which is also a twist on the gratitude strategy—being grateful your situation is not worse).
The last thing I noted is he said some of the best work he has done on songwriting has happened in the shower. (I’ve long noticed a similar phenomenon—great ideas coming to me in the shower, in airplanes, and lying in bed in the middle of the night: all places where I am alone and left to my thoughts.)
What are your thoughts? Please join the conversation with your comments below…
Best regards,
David