Let's take a closer look at some of her wisdom that she has gifted us through her her writing and astute quotes in her book You Learn By Living: 11 Keys for a More Fulfilling Life.
You Learn By Living: 11 Keys for a More Fulfilling Life - How to Feel Happier
In her 70's Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a book entitled: You Learn By Living: 11 Keys for a More Fulfilling Life. More than 300 quotes have been extracted on the subject of self-knowledge and identity. Her insights into the purpose of life, happiness and being an individual in your own right have been widely quoted .In a chapter entitled Learning to Be Useful she offers many pearls of wisdom. The chapter contains, perhaps, Eleanor Roosevelt's most famous quote about being happy in life: Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.
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| "Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product." - Eleanor Roosevelt - |
She states that it is not by mapping our lives out that we achieve happiness but rather, quite the reverse - that is the secret to not enjoying anything. Her recipe for happiness is simple and achieved through giving pleasure to others.
ER writes:
Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically, the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively. After a short time, a very short time, there would be little that one really enjoyed. For what keeps our interest in life and makes us look forward to tomorrow is giving pleasure to other people.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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| Eleanor Roosevelt By Unknown author National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17102924 |
Most Important Requirements for Happiness According to Eleanor Roosevelt
Further in the book Eleanor Roosevelt goes on to discuss the three most important requirements for happiness in response to a question she was once asked about the keys to happiness. She cites:- being honest with yourself and others
- knowing you've done your best
- the ability to love others
She adds that usefulness in whatever form it takes is also an important ingredient of happiness.
This is what she has to say in her book:
Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: ‘A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.’
But there is another basic requirement, and I can’t understand now how I forgot it at the time: that is the feeling that you are, in some way, useful. Usefulness, whatever form it may take, is the price we should pay for the air we breathe and the food we eat and the privilege of being alive. And it is its own reward, as well, for it is the beginning of happiness, just as self-pity and withdrawal from the battle are the beginning of misery.
Have Courage to Be an Individual
Another ingredient to being happy in life is most certainly to be true to yourself. In her book You Learn By Living: 11 Keys for a More Fulfilling Life Eleanor Roosevelt also remarked on conformity and individuality. While she did not strictly identify it as an ingredient to happiness she did say: "It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also, perhaps, a lonely thing. But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all.” |
| "It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also perhaps, a lonely thing. But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all." - Eleanor Roosevelt Quote - |
Our Attitude Determines Our Happiness
Being happy in life is more about choice than we realize. Eleanor Roosevelt knew this lesson very well because she once observed that it is less about changing our circumstances and more about adjusting our attitude. |
| "You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude." - Eleanor Roosevelt Quote - |
Being happy in life is also about perspective and the interpretation we put on our experiences. The more we embrace experiences as growing opportunities the happier we will be in life.
Eleanor Roosevelt on The Purpose of Life
In yet another great quote from Eleanor Roosevelt on the subject of life and happiness although not from her book she reminds us not to shy away from experiences but to relish them. She states that this is our purpose in living and what truly makes us happy.The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
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| "The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear; for newer and richer experience." - Eleanor Roosevelt Quote - |
Other Inspirational Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes from You Learn by Living
While it is more than 50 years since it's publication Eleanor Roosevelt's book You Learn By Living: 11 Keys for a More Fulfilling Life is still relevant today. She provides us with some real gems that are maxims to live by. Some quotes that particularly stand out are:Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun.
- On AgingThere is no experience from which you can't learn something.
- On LearningA woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
- On WomenYou gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.
- On ExperienceWe all create the person we become by our choices as we go through life. In a very real sense, by the time we are adult, we are the sum total of the choices we have made.
- On the Power of Choice
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| We all create the person we become by our choices as we go through life. In a very real sense, by the time we are adult, we are the sum total of the choices we have made. - Eleanor Roosevelt Quote - |
The book is certainly worth the read whether you go to the public library or consider purchasing a copy.
Remember the power to be happy is in your hands. Why not take a leaf out of Eleanor Roosevelt's book and embrace life just as she did?
#eleanorroosevelt #eleanorrooseveltquotes #happiness #youlearnbyliving
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