What if I told you the secret to happiness?
Would you be interested?
Why would you?
In today's day and age, there is much talk about finding happiness. You have self-help books telling you how to seek happiness. You have movies and stories encouraging you to chase after happiness, to pursue the things that make you happy. You hear about how "money cannot buy happiness" or that "money buys you happiness, you just need to know how to spend it".
Find happiness, chase it, obtain it. Happiness is out there, you just need to want it. After all, the purpose of life is to be happy!
What if I told you that there is no secret to happiness?
What if I told you that there is, however, a secret of happiness?
You see, happiness is often thought of an ends in itself. People think that happiness is the end that is finally waiting for you, after all your hard work and striving. The truth is, folks, you can't seek happiness - at least not your own. When you get what you want, you feel happy. However, when you see someone else get what they want or need, especially if its because of you, the immense happiness erupting from your very core is indelible. And guess what? The happiness you get from seeking the happiness of others far surpasses that of seeking your own happiness.
I like to use the term 'joy' instead of 'happiness' because I find happiness to be more of a state, something that's temporal and circumstantial; but joy to be something that's sustaining, hardy and independent of circumstance. And that's really what we feel when we seek the joy of others: you could have having a terrible day but still experience joy when you help that fella get his wheelchair into the train. And when the joy is within you, what you're simply experiencing is enjoyment ("en" literally meaning 'within' and "joy" meaning 'great pleasure').
Here's the secret of happiness:
You want to seek happiness? No you don't
It's joy you're seeking. Not your own but someone else's.
Cheers,
Matt
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