The Pursuit of Happiness........

I posted this last year on this day, but it seemed so fitting to re-release it. I also wanted to ad a quick synopsis at the bottom for insight.......

"There are three hungers that people are trying to feed throughout their lives. The first is to connect deeply with the creative spirit of life. The second is to know and express your gifts and talents. The third is to know that our lives matter. Fulfillment comes from feeding these three hungers."

-- Richard Leider, executive

As Tony Robbins says "there is only one human goal and that is to experience happiness!" Sadly, there are many avenues to attain happiness.  Some are short term, RE: diet, drugs, alcohol, sex etc. While others are longer term - RE: a relationship, a new apartment, a move from one place to the next, from one state to another etc. Then there are is long term happiness - that lasts a lifetime. These long term happiness qualities are really developed with learning how to ward off short term happiness and creating good habits that turn into long term happiness. Creating a life-style that is pure, and consistent. This life style still includes short term happiness, but the experiences are the building blocks for the future. 

For example: As a teacher of the martial arts, I see students, join and train and have the time of their lives. (at that moment, this is short term happiness) Then they quit out of boredom or lack of discipline, because they have not created a habit, which develops long term happiness. The only see the lull after the high, from the initial fun in which they experience.  However, if they stick with it through the lull, the highs will become a regular occurrence and a better overall long term experience. 

We as humans in our current state of life, are always in search of happiness, however, we are too unfocused to stick with things and we continue to be in constant search of the pursuit of happiness or in search to find something that really clicks with us. This is actually the real issue in regards to long term happiness.  We as humans are very whimsical in regards to experiential events.  We love that high we get from a quick burst of adrenaline. For example: People join my martial art school kickboxing program, sign up, pay a deposit and pay monthly payments. Many of them show up at most for a few weeks and then they quit. Some blame the program, blame the music, blame the short term at the moment experience.  When the reality is, it is the same program, when they first started. The same hard, workout that burns calories. Yes, we create variety, we change the workout, change the music and much more. However, when the intiatial excitement dies down, the only thing left is creating good habits that last a life time, and finding enjoyment out of the experience and results, not the adrenaline rush, that comes initially.  

 

We need to remind ourselves and shift our paradigm from initial experience to long term benefits, creating a happiness from the end goal and the journey getting there.  This takes a discipline that most people lack these days.  If you have any questions on creating this mindset, ask your question below and I will give you some examples.