A Happy Life Is All About The Journey
Happiness is not a destination
The most meaningful part of your life is the part you take most for granted.
You have an awful habit of continuously delaying your happiness to a specific destination. You tell yourself you will be happy when you finally get that raise, a new car, can go on a trip, or make a certain amount of money…
Happiness does not come from reaching a certain place. What you are really feeling is a moment of satisfaction.
Sure, from that moment you get some happiness.
But, it was the road there, the one you were secretly enjoying all along, that brought you happiness.
The journey is what matters.
The journey is what brings you happiness.
It all starts with picking the right journey
I’m sorry to say it, but your journey will be miserable if you don’t pick the right one. Unfortunately for a lot of people, they pick a miserable journey off the bat leading to them being left unhappy their whole lives.
Some people pick a miserable journey in hopes of a happy destination and others pick a miserable journey because they don’t know any better.
Chances are, you know many people in the first category.
The perfect example is someone who decided to become a doctor to make a lot of money. But, they don’t enjoy studying medicine and they don’t care to help people.
You have to ask yourself (and maybe them)... What happens if you don’t reach your “happy destination”?
Or in this specific example, “What if you aren’t happy once you are making your target salary?”.
You’ll have spent your life on a miserable journey for nothing. That seems like a pretty stupid risk if you ask me.
So, how do you figure out which journey to embark on, and what does “a journey” even mean?
A journey typically refers to your career choice, but depending on who you are it could mean a number of other things.
Pursuing further education
Working towards fitness goals
Embarking on a spiritual journey
Dedicating your time to an art form
Committing yourself to your community
The journey of a parent, husband or wife
Adopting healthy habits to better yourself
Picking which journey to embark on can be a tricky task. Ultimately, it comes down to where you want to focus your time.
Reflecting regularly on where you are in life and what areas need improvement is a good way to identify the right journey for you.
It’s important to remember, the journey does not have to be forever. A lot of people feel the need to commit to one, and then continue on with it, miserably.
If you want to live a happy life, don’t be one of those people.
Hard times are inevitable
We are all faced with a very similar dilemma. Without question, at one point or another, you will be faced with hard times.
You cannot back out every time things get hard. But, as I also mentioned before, you don’t want to continue on a miserable journey.
The key is to avoid confusing hard with misery though.
With good times also come bad ones. With love often comes hate. And with joyous occasions also come the sad ones.
When faced with hard times, you have to take a step back and take a look at the bigger picture.
Are you simply trying to solve a difficult problem? And if you solve that problem, will the journey be enjoyable again?
Were these hard times inevitable regardless of which journey you took? Or, are they unique to this one?
How is it going to feel once these hard times end? Will you be happy again, or was the journey a miserable one this whole time?
It’s not easy to do this analysis without a semi-bias lens when you are faced with hard times. Hard times always make everything look worse.
If you realize you are doing this, you may want to ask an outsider's perspective. Preferably one who has been on a similar journey before.
Just know, that regardless of which journey you take, you will be faced with hard times.
You can switch at any time
One of the biggest mistakes people make is committing themselves to a journey even when they realize they don’t enjoy it.
A common example would be someone who goes to school for years, finally gets the career of “their dreams”, and then realizes they hate it. Yet, they continue on with it for the rest of their lives because they think they’ve gone too far.
Some would call that the “sunk cost fallacy”.
This is your life we are talking about here.
Whether you believe you have only 1 or an infinite number of lives, this is the only one you can guarantee will happen.
Don’t waste your life doing something you don’t enjoy simply because you feel you’ve gone too far to turn back.
It’s never too late to go find the love of your life.
It’s never too late to adopt healthy habits.
It’s never too late to get into shape.
Don’t make yourself lose the race before you even start.
Closing thoughts
Happiness is a tricky thing. You get moments of it randomly throughout your day and you experience it when you reach certain destinations.
Some say happiness is simply the absence of worry, and so, you should live the life which brings you the most peace.
No matter how you view happiness, to maximize it, you need to put yourself in the right place to maximize the odds of having those happy moments and reaching those happy destinations.
The best way to do this is to pick the right journey to begin it.
Thanks for reading