The Pursuit of Happiness

Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. ~Dr. David M. Burns

To preface this article, I know that this blog is geared towards "Financial Advice that Makes Cents".  However, I believe understanding the mindset behind accomplishing all goals (including finance) is very important in obtaining the desired results.  

Recently, I had a conversation with an old friend who I have not seen or talked to in about five years.  While trading life stories, we eventually got on to the topic of pursuing dreams and happiness.  It seems that at some point in time, the focus was lost about what made her happy and instead, she concentrated on other things that were not contributing to her happiness.  During this conversation, I reflected on some of the decisions that I have made in the past and determined how I transitioned to the person that I am today.

Happiness:  State of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy (Citation)

During the hustle of life, I believe most people get caught up in the many distractions that life consists of, that we forget to live.  After all, I believe this was the case in my life due to a period of unhappiness that I experienced towards the end of my tenure at college.  For a while, my life was a standard routine; wake up, eat, class, eat, homework, sleep.  I truly felt like I was a zombie in life and merely going through the motions rather than living day by day.  It was at this point that I truly realized that I had no defined purpose for my life outside of graduating from school.

It is really easy for anyone to get at a point where a routine seems normal and living slowly seems to become purposeless.  However, becoming complacent with this type of life was not the  choice for me.  Instead, I made a decision that I needed to define what made me happy and pursue it to the fullest extent.  Below are the points I followed for the pursuit:

1. It is OK to put yourself first.
   
• One major roadblock to obtaining happiness was that I was afraid to look out for my number one fan, myself.
• It is hard to build the foundation to someone else's house while your house is in shambles.
2. Impressing/pleasing others causes one to regress.
   
• Another huge problem is that I spent too much time and resources trying to impress people who did not care.
• Aiming to always please someone else will leave you empty because there will always be someone new to please.
3. Happiness requires work.
   
• Very rarely does happiness just occur without some type of effort.
• Obtaining your goals are worth the effort and the sense of accomplishment contributes to the overall level of happiness.

Using these principles, I was able to proceed with pursuing my goals and dreams that ultimately contributes to my happiness.  Although over time, my goals may change, the goal of obtaining happiness will never change.  What are some of the principles you use for obtaining happiness?  Stay Disciplined!