It's not your fault. It really isn't. You know you should stop doing it, but no matter how much you know that, and how much you try, you just can't stop!

Everyone knows how to lose weight. Don't eat fattening foods. Exercise. Everyone knows how to give up smoking. Don’t light cigarette. Yet having this knowledge just isn't enough. Sometimes even having desire isn't enough! Time and again I hear about people who get really close to quitting smoking. They can get all way down to one or two cigarettes a day, but just can't give up those last two. Many even make it all way down to zero, but cravings, oh cravings! They are wretched, those cravings. Most will go back to smoking within first few days. They can cut away most of "stuff" that keeps them glued to cigarettes, even not be addicted to nicotine anymore(!), but there is just something deep in their core that magnetically pulls them back in, like two lovers who know they are bad for each other but just can't help themselves.

What is this thing? What is at this core?

Let me take a step back for a moment. How many adults do you know who are happy? I mean really, truly happy? Think that question is foolishness? Let me ask you this. How many people do you know who love their work? I'm talkin' jump out of bed in morning, can't wait to start. Sadly, percentage is very small. Why is this?

We live in an interesting quick-fix culture. People don't really have to deal with their issues. We've got: •television •movies •shopping •toys •and hitting gym

to distract us and make us feel better. Even more than that, many people's issues are quite buried. Think of dreams that were squashed when we were young. "An artist? You could never make a living at that! You should be a doctor!" People often forget what their dreams once were.

As a result, I see an awful lot of unhappy, unfulfilled people walking around. They don't know what is bothering them, they just have that gnawing feeling that there must be more. Advertisers pray on this, selling us more and more bottles and gizmos to give us that ever elusive Happiness.

Maybe you came home from school one day and couldn’t wait to tell your Mom or Dad about a really neat idea you had for something that was so cool, it would probably make you rich or it could make world a better place. But before you could tell them, you told a friend who laughed at your idea and told you that it was a stupid one… it could never work… you weren’t smart enough to think it up on your own…etc. So, you decided to forget about it and not say anything to anyone else.