http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

What makes you get out of bed in the morning? What ideas have helped you acheive happiness when you have adopted them, and what advice would you give to others in order to find greater happiness. What was the happiest time of your life?

I honestly have no idea.(8+| That's a question that'll get me thinking.
I can't say that I'll come up with a definitive answer, but it'll get me thinking.

Mark

Define 'happiness' please.

Existentialist questions often rely on those being posed the question to create their own definitions.

Mark

Waking up next to my girlfriend. That is wonderful.

Pure dumb persistence kept me going over the years, until I met her.

I used to feel really alive when I rode my motorbike. I haven't ridden for a few years, but I haven't had the need, since I met my girlfriend...

That's a different kind of 'alive' otherwise you're doing one or the other wrong Dave.

Now if we're talking 'alive' then for me it's skiing, I frackin' love the feeling of bombing down the Alps.

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamen.... oh no, hold on, that's something else.

Fresh powder
A good joke
The smell of fresh bread
Summer dresses


Any of the above really.

I see one of your habits has led to another.

I'll try to define happiness then. Happiness is when your brain can create endorphins at the drop of a hat and looking at future events sends a little shiver of excitement down your spine, and the only thing you can do is smile. This is of course a temporary and irrational state to be in, but it's real nevertheless, maybe it's linked to freedom for you, or maybe it's linked to devotion and caring for others.

Here's a Tim Minchin song which might go some way to define my best friend's happiness, as he's getting married:

We've got years ahead of us
We've got people who care for us
We've got Sunday morning coffees in the sun
We've got Monday night television

We've got years of happiness
We've got decades of laughter ahead of us
We've got Christmases with family by the sea
We've got wine and vintage cheddar

Yeah, I have everything a man could ever want
And all I'll ever need is you

Nothing can stop us now
Only the good times left
Nothing can stop our love
Except terminal illness
Or sudden accidental death