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What Don Draper teaches us about happiness

"What is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness." -Don Draper My favourite TV ad man spouts memorable happiness quotes often on Mad Men. 'Happiness is the smell of a new car and freedom of fear', he preaches. Or, as he told Dow Chemical executives in last week’s episode, 'happiness is the moment before you need more happiness'.Watching Don and his fellow ad execs is an exercise in what we think will bring us happiness versus what really does.

Don Draper, Mad Men

"What is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness." -Don Draper

My favourite TV ad man spouts memorable happiness quotes often on Mad Men. 'Happiness is the smell of a new car and freedom of fear', he preaches. Or, as he told Dow Chemical executives in last week’s episode, 'Happiness is the moment before you need more happiness'. Watching Don and his colleagues is an exercise in what we think will bring us happiness versus what really does. Each one of Don’s successes make him hungrier for bigger accounts. He celebrates momentarily then moves on. A recent episode was full of events that should’ve made our television friends happy — a big account, a key meeting, a fancy new car, a reunion with an old friend — but none of it seemed to work. What did spark joy was a lovely moment in which Don let his daughter’s young friend drive his car home. It was an unexpected moment of happiness and maybe the most of what we can take from this episode: finding happiness in the little things.

Sure those big moments can bring great joy (sometimes momentarily, sometimes lifelong) but perhaps we should take time to appreciate and savour those little snapshots of happiness as well. When you’re having dinner with an old friend and connecting like no time has passed, that’s a blip of happiness to savour. Or as it happened with me this past weekend when my husband and I finally got out to see The Avengers movie. In one of the many particularly tense and exciting scenes in the movie, I looked to him with a wide grin anchoring my 3D glasses, only to see an equally wide grin looking back at me. It was a little moment of happiness I thought about long after I got home from the movie. And it reminded me not to forget to grasp those little moments of happiness in life.

What about you? Do you catch little moments of happiness in your life?

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Want more happiness news? Follow me on Twitter @AstridVanDenB

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