Achieving Happiness

“For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one. Happiness is a journey not a destination.” 

Not sure who Alfred D. Souza is, but the quote is applicable to my life, so I’m using it.

I’m very goal driven. I have a task at hand, I work until it’s complete, and then I close it and move on to the next thing. Over and over and over.

So, lately, my task has been to achieve “happiness”….to achieve success, perfection, the ideal life, etc. etc. It’s my task, and I’ve been working hard to reach the ending point of finding positive emotions (i.e. happiness). And now I laugh, because that sounds so silly. Souza is absolutely right. Happiness is not a destination. Happiness is an emotion that comes on the way to the destination. And what is the destination? Well…that’s still to be determined. The church-girl answer would be “Jesus.” The old-Grace answer would be, “Perfection.” And while I believe both answers are correct, I think I need to travel the road a little more before I discover the actual destination.

Or maybe there isn’t a destination. Maybe my life will be this journey. And my destination is death. Isn’t that sort of the point? I go through life, enduring trials, with patience and joy, until Jesus calls me home. (A rough synopsis. I realize there is so much more to life, but life ultimately leads to death, no?) 

And also, if happiness is a journey, doesn’t that mean that disappointment, frustration, and anger are also a journey. It’s just that people don’t strive to attain disappointment. No one wants to focus on the bad. Only the good. But the bad aspects are just as much a part of the journey as the good aspects.

And what happens when you are on this journey, and you’re experiencing happiness and you’re thinking that your bent-out-of-shape life is finally taking a recognizable shape again, and then, it springs back out of shape because the people you were relying on didn’t hold up their end of the deal or didn’t believe in you. Then what?

This would be the hard part of the journey. And I think this is where we begin to think that happiness is a destination. Because, surely, feeling disappointment isn’t the final product. It must be the opposite of disappointment. Therefore, happiness. And thus, we conclude with happiness being the end goal.

Enough with the rambling.

It’s a journey. Life is. Positive and negative. Uphills and downhills. Joys and struggles. Embrace it all, because “time waits for no one.”