Happiness: What If You Strive for It?

Learn to be happy with what you have as you strive to be happy with want you want.

Do you ever wonder what your purpose in life is? Think of what truly makes you happy and work out ways to achieve them. That is your purpose in life. In his book Thoughts are Things, Prentice Mulford asks “What is the aim of life?” and his response to his own question is “to get the most happiness out of it”. Mulford believed that the aim of living is happiness. Happiness to different people will mean different things but for each one, happiness evokes a wonderful feeling. When you are truly happy, you feel fully alive and you appreciate and celebrate life as it is. What if you strive for happiness?

When you want to have something, say a pair of shoes, and you are working out a way to get that pair of shoes, doesn't it feel good already? Maybe not for everyone. Some might say “I cannot be happy yet because many things can happen that will not let me have that pair of shoes”. Meanwhile, they deprive themselves of the opportunity to be happy. According to Dale Carnegie, “Happiness doesn't depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.”

For Alfred D. Souza, happiness is a journey, not a destination. He wrote this insightful prose:
“For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time to still be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.
This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have. And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time … and remember that time waits for no one…
So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until you are off welfare, until the first or fifteenth, until your song comes on, until you've had a drink, until you've sobered up, until you die, until you are born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy…
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.”

Jim Rohn shares a view similar to that of Souza's. For him, happiness is a vehicle to one destination after another. In his book The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle, Jim Rohn articulated that happiness is not something that we postpone for the future, but rather, it is something that we design for the present. Happiness is not something to be sought but an emotion to be experienced. Rohn wrote that “We don't have to wait until we are wealthy or powerful or famous to experience happiness. We don't have to postpone our appreciation of the finer things in life until we have reached our carreer goals. We can live a life that is as joyful and rewarding as we might wish starting right now.” He continued to explain that “Happiness is as much a cause of success as it is a result of success, and we can begin to experience happiness whenever we wish, regardless of our current circumstances.” His advice is “Learn to be happy with what you have as you strive to be happy with want you want.” What if you strive to be happy? Then, by all means, happily do just that. When you do something and your focus is not in what you do but in some future state of your life, you put a blockade at the enjoyment of the present moment. Each moment of your life offers an opportunity for happiness. Why not take this opportunity? You can be happy now and happier soon and even happier later. Instead of suffering now to become happy later, why not live happily from moment to moment.