For a long time, I had believed that happiness is tied to success, that it depends on achieving goals, on making progress, on having enough money to buy things I would want, on being able to travel the world. It was something that would always be out of my reach and something that I must pursue all my life without any certainty of ever achieving it.
- Happiness is tied to success and achievements
- Feeling happy for anything else felt wrong
- But the happiness that did come from achievements and success was short-lived
- I wasted a whole year of my life sacrificing everything so that I could achieve a goal which I thought would make me immensely happy
- My efforts paid off, as I achieved the goal. I experienced that elation that I was promised, but for not more than 15 minutes. Beyond that, I felt empty. I had spent the whole year working towards a target. Now that the target was achieved, I felt purposeless.
- All that hard work and sacrifice for 15 minutes of joy? It felt like a waste. I could have spent the year making so many good memories instead. I could have spent more time hanging out with my friends, having a good time, instead of being buried in my books every night and day.
- I still feel bitter about it, bitter for all the memories that I did not make.
- I had had a wonderful time in class 11. I had made wonderful friends and many beautiful memories of us spending time together, talking and laughing. But I was robbed off all those in class 12 because of my mad desire to achieve such stupid goals. The goal I did achieve, but the cost it incurred was too high and the reward that I received wasn't worth the sacrifice.
- Was I supposed to spend the rest of my life chasing targets and goals in the hopes that I would be rewarded with momentary happiness? I thought not.
- I realized that I had made out happiness to only be a reward for achievement. It is for this reason that feeling happy for anything less significant felt wrong. I understood my mistake.
- I realized that surely this is not the right way to find happiness. I cannot waste my life chasing these meaningless goals in the hopes that they might make me happy. I do not want to be in an endless pursuit of a seemingly unachievable goal
- For most people, this idea is ingrained in them. They have spent their whole lives chasing happiness and fulfillment that they lose the ability to enjoy the little things in life. But ultimately, it is these little things that matter. Nothing else does.
- Do not make happiness a distant target. Do not lose your life in the pursuit of meaningless targets.
- I have learned to be happy with what I have now. At any moment, I could lose any and all of my material possessions, and it would not affect me all that much because my happiness is not tied to any of them. My happiness comes from contentment, and I am contented with life just the way it is.
- I am happy because I am, not because I have earned it nor because my circumstances dictate it.
- There are so many things in life to be happy about. So many things to be grateful for. But people tend to always focus on the things they do not have. They make happiness an impossible target or worse a continuous pursuit.
- I might earn things and I might lose things, but that would hardly matter because I will continue to be happy with what I have.
- If I am not happy with what I have now, I will never be happy.
