There is no duty so much we underrate as the duty of being happy. -Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) was a Scottish novelist and poet. He is the author of such timeless works at Treasure Island and Kidnapped and remains one of History’s most translated writers.

Being happy does not mean leading a life of avarice and indulgence. Far from it, because that is merely spending your life reacting to outside stimuli. The happiness Stevenson is referring to comes from the satisfaction of knowing you are living from the inside out, from living the life you are meant to live. Stevenson is fully qualified to write about this because this was the life he lived. He was meant to be a writer, so he wrote.

It’s not easy making our happiness our top priority. Most of us are not made of money and have to earn livings and there are hundreds of other distractions every day waiting to distract us.

And even for those of us who do try to live the lives we were meant to live it isn’t easy, because every life, even those deemed a success by some, have setbacks and reverses, each one an opportunity to throw up your hands and say enough. If you are seeing someone for the first time and they are at their pinnacle, you no doubt are witnessing the finished blade that had been sharpened on supreme effort and long perseverance.

But what else are we supposed to do with our life? All we really have to do – when we reduce life to its most basic level – is die. When that time comes we are going to ask ourselves did we do well, or did we squander our time on this planet. Today’s Thought shows us we have an obligation to do well, to make our time serve us.

What were you meant to become? Are you becoming it? If not, it’s never too late to start. Everything you need for the journey can be found inside you: your heart will tell you where to go and your instincts will tell you how to get there. All you need to do is follow your path with diligence and courage.

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If he was not true to himself, he was nothing, – Gore Vidal, Washington, D.C.

Gore Vidal is quoted fairly regularly here at The Thought for the Day. For our money he is one of our species preeminent men of letters and one of our finest historical novelists. His insights into our human experience – which is what you pay us writers to provide – are unsurpassed.

Today’s Thought seems pretty obvious, but how many of us give a good effort to being true to ourselves?

Everyday there are a hundred little things trying to tear us away from the life we were meant to live: earning a living, demands of family and friends and, in my case right now, a lawn that needs to be mowed. It takes courage and diligence to remain on our path, to follow our heart and trust our instinct.

We talk about that a lot, here, too. What else are we supposed to with our time on this planet? Ignore what we are born to do? We do so at our peril, because our heart will tell us where to go and our instincts will tell us how to get there and to ignore those two things leads to an unsatisfactory life. It’s a life spent well off our path, a life that is not as much use you or to me as it could be.

We have to ask ourselves every day: our we being true to what nature is telling us to do?

And only we can answer that question; nobody can do it for us. If we are true to ourselves we are something. By definition, too, because if we are true to ourselves, if we are living the life we were meant to live, we are being the most use to ourselves and our fellow beings.

If we are not, we are nothing. We are merely marking time on this planet, instead of making our time serve us.

It’s a question we must ask ourselves every morning when we wake up. It’s one of the few questions that really matter, and to answer it with a yes is life’s great prize.

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