Happiness takes effort

Do you know what bugs me a lot these days?

Happiness.

No, it is not like I am allergic to it or something. And no, it is not like I am lacking it in my life or something.

Why this bugs me:

(1) I think the whole world is obsessed with it. It is like it is a sin not to be happy. It is like you cannot not be happy.

(2) I think through some twisted logic people in first world countries have delusionally associate happiness with lack of material possessions, in particular through romantised the notion of poverty. This is usually in the form of statements along the lines of “they are so poor, but they are happy”. Therefore we should shun material possessions and live a simple life so that we can be happy too. It is like we want a short-cut to happiness. (This is not a criticism for the minimalist movement. When you are minimalist, you are making a conscious choice to live a certain way because you think that way suits you better. There is nothing wrong with this.)

(3) And then there are people whose career is built on telling people that they are not happy and this is the sure way to be happy. Great. We are so desperate to be happy that we are willing to pay for its attainment. Another short-cut. If we are all truly so unhappy and not realize that, do you not think it is actually a good thing? Ignorance can be bliss sometimes.

I do not claim to know anything about happiness at all, except for the one that I feel occasionally. Yes, I do say occasionally. Happiness comes in short bursts, in unexpected moments, and when that moment happens, I enjoy it  with a massive smile and my arms flying on the air (although the latter is not always true). Sometimes, I let out a little giggle – a satisfied giggle over something I have been working very hard on that is finally working out.

Happiness can come in two forms – one is the unexpected kind, like you know, when your friend wants to spend time with you, or any other favours that other people do not have to do for you, but they do it anyway because they are nice to you.

The other one is the one that takes a lot of effort and hard work. It is the realization of your goals and efforts – including the ones whereby you help others realize their goals. It is about working, either solo or together with other people towards a common goal (which is sometimes supplemented by personal goals that are realized at the same time).

So in the drbelle’s kind of extreme simplification of reality, it goes like this. There are two ways to achieve happiness. One is to be kind to other people – because this is a guarantee that there are people out there who will be kind to you. The other one is to work on your goals and to assist others in realizing their goals. Both of these things require effort: physically and mentally for starters. I don’t really like venturing to psychological and spiritual realms – I have no idea what those things are, although I know that I get psycho-analysed on a daily basis.

If you think that you can be happy without doing anything, well, sorry to say this: you are severely delusional. Everything in this life takes effort. I personally believe that if you work hard on something, you will be successful. This has served me well in the past few years of my life, so I am sticking by this at least for the time being.

Maybe, just maybe, you may want to give it a try too. Because maybe, just maybe, you may end up actually being happy. Imagine that.