Happiness

Happiness has no universal meaning. Everyone has a different definition. I know so few people who are truly happy, including myself, so I'm not sure I'd be qualified to give the keys to happiness. Don't get me wrong, I'm not miserable. I am happy. But for me there's always something missing, always something that could make my life better. I can't seem to figure out where complacency ends and contentment begins. For much of my life, when it came time to making sacrifices happiness was the first to go. I've always had the "win at all cost" mentality. But I had to ask myself, is a miserable success even a success at all. If you can't enjoy the victory and your journey there, what's it really worth. Despite my shortcomings in finding true happiness, I have been able to define a few factors that are going to be essential if I ever hope to get there.

I believe the journey to happiness begins with realizing that my life is finite and that every day counts for something. Every day has the potential for greatness. Why waste one day of your life doing what you "should" be doing. If you live your life with that mentality (doing what you should) than your script has already been written. X leads to Y leads to Z and you know how it ends. It seems all too common that people are so eager to give their lives limits, to define and align themselves with a predetermined destiny.

Step Two...Have the presence of mind to enjoy the seemingly meaningless. The Sundays huddled around a TV with your closest friends watching football, the smell of gasoline while you pump your gas, the sound of your mothers voice calling you for dinner, car wheels turning over gravel. All beautiful things. It pains me to think of all of the incredible moments I've missed in my life while I dwelled on the past or labored over the future. How many moments that passed as I waited for the next best thing?

Finally, pursue whatever it is that you feel will make you happy. If its money, so be it. If its promiscuous sex with women you had to pay for, right on. Happiness is happiness, it has no boundaries. There is no excuse for waking up everyday living a life that you don't want. Life is about more than just survival and subsistence. Merely surviving is not truly thriving. I don't want to survive life, I want to live it.