July 24The Meaning of Happiness
Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness, without dreaming of it; but likely enough it is gone the moment we say to ourselves, “Here it is!” like the chest of gold that treasure-seekers find.
Nathaniel Hawthorne—Passages from the American Notebooks, Vol. II (1851)
As an entrepreneur, you'll find that choosing to chase happiness means that most of the time you won't be what people would call happy. You'll be busy pushing your life, and your family, and your health aside so that you can try to be happy.
That sounds kind of crazy when you read it, doesn't it?
What many entrepreneurs have found, is the thing that actually makes them feel happy and fulfilled isn't what some call happiness or even success; it's the feeling that what they are doing has meaning.
Without meaning or purpose in your work, happiness is reduced to pleasure seeking.
Let's revisit Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning:
Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself … Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.
Wow, happiness happens by not caring about it. Can you live with that?
Today, dig deep ...
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