It’s the jouney not the destination
image: fotopusch
Happiness is not so much a destination as a journey. It is the culmination of a series of processes, namely growth and development, fulfilment and the inevitable state that summons. We struggle in the developed world with this equation because the pressures upon us are immense. The society we have created is far more complex than anything else that has existed so far in the human story and the need for success and to excel within that society is huge.
It baffles the best of us and you will meet few, if any, people who do not realise that there has to be a seed change in attitude, expectation and the method we employ to go about our lives. Happiness, it seems to me, is a fundamental requirement of all human beings. I believe that we are entitled to happiness but that this view is out of step with the engines that drive our culture.
Some philosophies would have you believe that the purpose of living is to suffer and to feel the suffering of all things. Some would have you believe that a messiah sacrificed their life to absolve you of sin and that you are therefore indebted to that messiah for your life. I believe that the purpose of life is to grow and to develop. To personally evolve and become the best that you can possibly be at whatever it is that you do. How you achieve that is a matter of choice, something else that I believe is a fundamental principle to being alive. Also that there is responsibility within that, responsibility toward others, to do no harm to other living things and to uphold a set of values that promote the best in others.
Naturally I only touch base here. This area is, for anyone serious about their life, huge and requires a lifetime’s endeavour. Not a lifetime of graft and uncomfortably, but a lifetime of stretching to reach the next level from where you are at. It’s like a stairway, isn’t it? Each step has its preceding step, its step beyond and the step itself. They exist within an inter-connectivity that defines what they are.
There is an Irish joke about taking a journey. An old codger is asked the way to Kerry by some lost travellers and having given it some thought he says, “You know.. if I was going to Kerry, I wouldn’t start from here at all.” And that is what it’s like, development is a journey. We probably wouldn’t start from where we started but it’s our only point of departure and everything we do is relative to that originating point.
Why do I say that? Someone asked me what made me qualified to talk about happiness in a way that wasn’t a patronising, ‘I am happy, you should be too.’ It being that there is no formal qualification in happiness, no degree course or doctor of happiness PhD to be studies for the matter is one of subjective assessment. However happiness is, I believe, a fundamental requirement of all human beings in order that they flourish and prosper.
Development is not an easy option. Self improvement requires going through one’s life with a fine toothed comb and challenging whatever that process delivers up that is at odds with your intention to improve yourself. You are the author of your own story, you create your own reality and the truth for you is whatever you want it to be. That can be a main road to misery or reveille to wake up and live the life you truly want to live.