I've been thinking a bit lately, about the pursuit of happiness. A friend recommended The Happiness Trap and I haven't read it as yet. But some things I have been thinking about... 'happiness' as the world media portray it is unobtainable. It isn't human nature to just be in that blissful state. Even things that 'make' us happy, like drugs, alcohol, or chocolate... all have a time they stop working and we start to crave them again.
Then I wonder... is it happiness we chase or just to be feeling good all the time? ie eating food, buying clothing, playing online games, whatever drug (legal or illegal) all can be addictive and mind numbing. So is it truly the happiness we want or the lack of thought? Of thinking where we are going? Of what pain might be needed to get us where we would ultimately like to be?
Today I had the thought (and this is from someone who will acknowledge she has done the mind numbing addictions of online games often) that... I bet those people who truly get somewhere didn't do this. That Richard Branson, Simon Cowell, Dick Smith (aussie), or any other giants in life, I would be willing to bet didn't care about numbing. That they grabbed hold of life, as painful as it is, and choked as much as they could out of it. They weren't afraid of pain or rejection. Or, probably more likely, they were afraid, but did it anyway. They kept their eye on the end result.
Thing is, since I got here to England I'm not sure what my next aim is. Yes I want a good job in my chosen field, but the options there are too varied and massive to get a decisive focus. The saving to come here took me 7 years and that's my second best achievement (first is my amazing daughter, natch). Will I, with no foreseeable goal, descend back to the numbing pastimes that dominated so much of my life? I certainly hope not.
So my wish you you, and for me, is that we feel the fear, see the pain ahead, and do it anyway.
Then I wonder... is it happiness we chase or just to be feeling good all the time? ie eating food, buying clothing, playing online games, whatever drug (legal or illegal) all can be addictive and mind numbing. So is it truly the happiness we want or the lack of thought? Of thinking where we are going? Of what pain might be needed to get us where we would ultimately like to be?
Today I had the thought (and this is from someone who will acknowledge she has done the mind numbing addictions of online games often) that... I bet those people who truly get somewhere didn't do this. That Richard Branson, Simon Cowell, Dick Smith (aussie), or any other giants in life, I would be willing to bet didn't care about numbing. That they grabbed hold of life, as painful as it is, and choked as much as they could out of it. They weren't afraid of pain or rejection. Or, probably more likely, they were afraid, but did it anyway. They kept their eye on the end result.
Thing is, since I got here to England I'm not sure what my next aim is. Yes I want a good job in my chosen field, but the options there are too varied and massive to get a decisive focus. The saving to come here took me 7 years and that's my second best achievement (first is my amazing daughter, natch). Will I, with no foreseeable goal, descend back to the numbing pastimes that dominated so much of my life? I certainly hope not.
So my wish you you, and for me, is that we feel the fear, see the pain ahead, and do it anyway.