Pursuit of Happyness

If I were to ask you- what does happiness mean to you, what would you say to me?

I shall lead the conversation with my take on it. I believe that happiness, as Aristotle says, is not a state of mind. Rather, it is an activity. I think perpetual, omnipresent happiness is a complete lie and totally misleading because it’s simply unrealistic to believe you can be happy 24x7 or even through most of the day.

Simply because majority of the activities we are busy filling up our lives with are almost 90% routine and very rarely ecstatic, since there’s nothing exciting about sitting and reading on a laptop for almost 12 hours a day. Yes, it’s fun sometimes. You're learning. And you’re definitely choosing this. But often, we mistake passion with a sense of a 100% reward in the form of immense joy. We often mistakenly believe that even when we’re following our calling, we’re going to have nothing to complain about anymore because it’s what your heart is asking for.

What we forget to tell our kids is that even passion can be disappointing sometimes. We don’t tell them about the pain and disappointment that following your heart eventually springs upon you. It could be in any form. The mindless numbering of pages while you’re working on an extremely invigorating case or the frustration of keeping at researching upon a point of law without the correct answer turning up, leading you to wonder if there’s any “right” answer to begin with. What we don’t tell them is how discouraging failure can be even when you’re following your heart. Because how can you not be good at what your heart is demanding of you, to do?  And yes, because you love what you do, you’re bound to get up and get back on track. But sometimes, it takes a while. What we don’t tell them is that it’s okay to take a while.

What we also don’t tell them is that there is no such thing as a perpetual state of happiness. Sometimes, you have to fight every moment of every day to find that sense of contentment while you’re busy keeping up with life. And more often than not, you’ll be lost, under the pressure of “Don’t complain, you chose this!” or “Don’t crib, there are so many people who are worse off than you.” What people mostly forget is that we have no idea what we were signing up for, when we decided this is what we’re choosing to dedicate our lives to. Simply because reading or hearing about a particular activity is not the same as doing it. And sometimes, we choose the right field and the wrong direction. So what I’m saying is- it’s okay. It’s okay to be lost, to be unhappy once in a while because till you are, you don’t know what you truly want. Or what you’re missing.