The Pursuit of Pursuing Happiness

Thomas Jefferson said many intelligent and very meaningful things. I, however, fully and completely believe that he flawed on, "The pursuit of happiness."

Happiness - true happiness - comes from joy and is not something you pursue. To pursue means you have not achieved it or arrived at the point where it exists and that it is beyond you, instead of within you. This implies that happiness only exists in the future and external to you. Well, if that were true you are never going to reach it because you can only live in the now. The donkey who chases the carrot, on a string, is caught on the Hedonic treadmill of happiness being a future event - where it is always just as far away in the next moment as it was in the last.

Yes, that's correct. You are never going to live in the future. You can fantasize about it - or conjure up old day dreams of the past for that matter. Whenever you are in a state of reality you will only be in the now. Not the future. Not the past. Therefore pursuing happiness is a waste of time. Choose it! Have it now.

Happiness is not truly found in material or possessions. That's pleasure and it's a decoy. Joy which is found through creating, caring, contributing and sharing is the only true form of happiness, which cannot be taken from you because this form of happiness comes from your Strengths, Ambitions and Principles (SAP - like the life blood of a tree).

That should be the real secret! How many people actually know and apply this? Very few! Most of us live in constant states of frustration and anxiety, which devalue our lives.

So for me, and I hope for you, "Give me life, liberty and the right to choose happiness - from within." I will not chase a carrot on a string or look to tomorrow to be better when I can choose an amazingly brilliant psychology in any situation knowing that even bad moments don't last and that there is no need to write off an entire day as a bad day over a few isolated incidents throughout the day.

May infinite joy be yours! Pass it on - it's not a secret anymore!