image courtesy of: huffingtonpost.com

What is Happiness?

We talk a lot about our goals and where we are going so that we can lead a fulfilling life, a happy life. This is the ideal that helps drive our self-growth and our own self-awareness, but what is this concept of happiness. What does happiness mean in our lives? This is something that will be different for every person that we talk to, but it is a vital thing to understand as we create our goals and start to move down our path.

For many, they will start by seeing happiness as those things that they do not have. They will want more stuff to fulfill them. This is common as we live in a very materialistic world and are taught from a young age that “things” make us happy. This can be a very hollow form of happiness that only last as long as we are infatuated with the things that we have acquired. By nature, it leads to wanting more or newer things, or maybe better things just to find that same hollowness soon after.  Only after much work can we determine what it actually is that makes us happy.

Some people are happy when they are supporting a cause, something that they can through their love and support behind. Maybe it is political or religious or maybe just a matter or supporting a community. Anyway it shows, these sorts of people need to tailor their goals so that they are in line with this form of happiness.

Others are only happy when they are all alone in the middle of nowhere. They feel a connection to the world around them and never want to return. These people need to understand that happiness and work to tailor their goals around that happiness or their goals will come and go and they will still find themselves unhappy.

For me, happiness is sharing some sort of adventure with those people close to me. This can be sharing a game or a movie, or hoping in a car and going for a road trip. It doesn’t really matter the form the adventure takes as long as I am getting to share it with those closest to me. This means that I have to tailor my goals to make sure that I can still experience this. It means creating tasks that I can do that don’t take time away from spending time with those closest to me. It also means finding the adventure in things I had not previously seen it in, like helping xiaoyi at a conference, as she follows her happiness. Which can be an adventure to be certain!!! Heck, I think there are even level ups involved in helping her some weekends!

No matter the heights we achieve or the goals that we accomplish, if those ideals were not created from a place where we understand what makes us happy, we will find that they feel hollow and worthless. Don’t find sadness at the completion of your goals; instead take the time to really think about what makes you happy. Then find a way to find that happiness in what you do now as you also look for opportunities to chase more happiness because the more you know what you are looking for and the happier you are the more chances to stay happy will find you.