The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

September 14Entirely Happy

I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.

Willa Cather—My Ántonia (1918)

Happiness. That's what we all want, isn't it?

But to have a goal, any goal, to achieve a goal, much less such an ambitious one like achieving happiness, you must first possess the ability to describe what a win looks like.

Or is the search for happiness such an elusive one because we have no final destination in mind? We remain hopelessly lost in our journey, but at least we're making good time.

Let's borrow Cather's description as a great starting point: “At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.”

There's nothing scientific or even terribly philosophical about Cather's description—it is at once melodic, perpetual, and filled with life. (It's fitting that this is the quote inscribed on Cather's gravestone.)

Could you live with that? Would that be enough?

Challenge Question

1. What do you think happiness feels like? Describe it.