The Happy Warrior
A Personal Guide to Joyous, Peaceful, Healthy Living
Michael Morales
Copyright © 2011 Michael Morales
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.
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2011-10-25
Dedication
Para o meu amor, minha família e fruto do amor, minha filha.
Obrigado!
Acknowledgements
Any writer who is also a HAPPY WARRIOR does not work in a vacuum. He is surrounded by loving, supportive people who make it possible for him to have a rich and productive life.
I would like to extend my special thanks to my lovely wife who never complained about me taking the time to do this project. You are essential, every day, in enabling me to be proud warrior.
To my mother who always takes the time to help me and make things possible, I want you to know how much I appreciate it.
Thank you to my brother and his family for always being ready to help and for being such nice people. You are truly inspirational.
Thanks to my sister for always asking questions and providing another perspective, and to her family for being great.
A big thank you to the people I have worked with these many years. I have learned a lot from you.
Thanks to the gentlemen I spend time with every second Thursday. You are a great friend and it’s always a pleasure to be with you.
Thanks to the friends that are always there and giving me inspiration.
I want to thank Alan Forray for the job he did in helping me make this book readable in English.
And my appreciation goes out to Juanita Dix from J. D. Design for being patient with me and sticking with it to get the cover finished.
The moment one definitely commits oneself, providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one´s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Intro to The HAPPY WARRIOR LIFE
Congratulations
You did the first smart thing of hopefully a lot of smart things. You bought this book.
Be prepared to make changes in your life. And be prepared to work hard. Then, enjoy the results
This book is a sampler of the good things that have made a great difference in my life.
I want you to read the book for your personal enjoyment but also to improve your own quality of life.
Let me first tell you a little about me. This to give you a good picture of who I am and where I have come from.
I have always been a guy that on the outside seemed to have lots of success. I accomplished most of the goals I set for myself. That would be anything from buying a new car, finding a girlfriend, launching a new website, doing heavier exercises in the gym, losing weight, running a marathon, learning a new language … things like that.
These goals were not all easy to reach, and they required hard work and self- motivation to make them happen. Along the way, there were always struggles.
The struggles, I do believe, come to every person on this earth. They might be financial struggles, problems in relationships, problems finding a partner, sickness or even death among family or friends. Throughout my life, I have found ways to handle these struggles, and mostly handle them with a smile.
Me and my Country
I live in a little country in the north of Europe. This is a country with about 5 million inhabitants. We have actually been measured to be the happiest people in the world, so congratulations to us.
This is a country where we go from snow in winter, to nice colors in the spring, to some sun and if we are lucky to some warm days in summer, then to the autumn which is normally gray and takes a long time … and then back to snow. This is to say, we don’t live on the beach everyday.
It´s also a country with high taxes (more than 50 %) and a lot of good care for the single person, provided by the government.
You can drive from one end of the country to the other in only 5 hours.
Back to me
I have always been a guy who wanted to be my best, or actually be the best. This is something that has given me great skills in many things, and also some defeats. Important! I try to learn from it all.
I was brought up in a normal family, had a mom a dad and a smaller brother and a smaller sister. And in many ways this was for a long time a happy life.
Then family problems started and ended up in a divorce and four members of the family changing their last name. The only person keeping his name was my father.
After the divorce, we had no contact with my father, and this is not an issue for me. I know my father has a new family and I hope he lives the best life for him.
Ok now, enough of that part.
More important is, that I quite early I started to imagine things. I started to see and dream what I wanted. I played with these imaginings and had fun with them. I love to lie down and just look up in the sky and imagine everything. I quess you can relate to this. When was the last time you did this?
Then, because of my goal oriented mind about being the best, I often tryed to get my imagination to come true. One time, I imagined I could be the best in handling a European football, you know how many I could juggle without the ball getting to the ground. And then I started to work (maybe I was 10 years old), all my spare time, whenever possible, I just played with the ball and I quickly got better and started to make competitions in school. I ended up with no more kids to beat.
I have lots of these examples.
More about me and imagination
I later started to imagine (this was at the time when girls were more than just something you imagined) that I was very popular and handsome with a great body and a big charming smile—a boy, who would get a lot of attention. I once again painted the picture of what I wanted in my mind—I started to exercise with weights in the gym, and started every day with a big charming smile. I wore clothes that brought me the attention I wanted and I learned a lot about myself and about girls.
The important thing here is, I imagined—I worked hard—I did what I thought was necessary—I succeeded.
Failure is a learning experience
I have also had great downers in my life. I have experienced the loss of people I deeply loved because of death or broken relationships. I have started projects that I dreamed would really make a difference in my financial life, and after lots of hours of work and money spent, I failed. I have had very embarrassing moments in front of many people. Trust me on this one, I do mean embarrassing.
I have had so much