In pursuit of happiness

What big goal are you chasing? I think if I were to poll the proverbial room, we are all - in the end - working for the same thing.

Happiness.

Rarely does someone get up and hope for a terrible day. Rarely does someone strive with all they have to achieve misery. We all have a pre-conceived version of happiness in our head.

And we want it - now. Whether that is a place of financial success, relationship success, physical achievement, or whatever it may be for you. The goal shimmers with the potential gleam of success and happiness.

Getting to happy

But this gets tricky. You see happiness is a byproduct of your thinking and acting, the systems and processes in your life. If we are beings that think, feel, and do, then happiness fills the feel part. So, what is your think and do? What are the thoughts and actions needed to achieve your goal?

Generally, people want to be the person on the Other - with a capital O - side of hard. But much of getting to happiness is just simply starting the process. That’s the beauty of process. All great achievements and goals worth chasing in life demand a process and discipline. You move forward in small incremental ways and then, and only then, does change show up. Over time, those habits, those small movements create big change. We climb closer to our goals and within reaching distance of the idea or thing that is happiness for us.

It doesn’t feel that simple! Most of us want that end result and want to find the short cut to it. We want to jump to the conclusion. But a true secret of life shows up in this process. And that is...

The conclusion or the goal isn’t where the happiness lies.

The art of discipline includes a need to think, feel, and act in the present (now) to pursue the future. The art of this discipline of pursuing happiness is to fully experience and appreciate what is now and current. That includes the people who are journeying with you, the small and sometimes large challenges you overcome, the joys of each step of progress.

So be intentional. You have the power to transform whatever the situation you are handed and see the path to happiness. Consider the last few years of pandemic chaos with ever-changing levels of uncertainty and shifting rules. We lived through an event that people will marvel at - an event of historic proportion.

And look at us. Look at you! You have emerged. Improved even, I would bet! You should have a real sense of what you are capable of enduring and adapting through. That can give you confidence and you can feel armed with endurance. You have been knocked around but didn’t get knocked down.

An important element on the path to happiness is resilience. Resilience is transformative. Resilience isn’t thinking the wound or the marks of the experience leaves you. Resilience is moving forward, not only in spite of that wound, but having grown from it. Resilience is moving forward with your new strength always by your side.

So be intentional, embrace the situation, celebrate the journey, and take small steps to work for your picture of happy.