OK, before you kick me to the curb and tell me you want to be happy, hear me out. I don’t want you to be miserable. But I also don’t think life is simply about being happy.
In fact, that assumption is often what leads people to some pretty bad places of addiction, consumption, debt, unhealthy behavior — and unhappiness.
So many times, people have said to me that they are guaranteed happiness in the Declaration of Independence. I first remind them that they are given the “unalienable right” to the “pursuit of happiness.” Not to be happy.
Second, I point out that our founding fathers did not have the same idea of “happy” that we seem to find in popular culture. Their idea was a bit deeper — and tightly tied to the Greek idea of Eudaemonia, a term that was about living a life of virtue a “Good Life.”
Let me say again, I do not think life is about being unhappy or miserable. But I tend to think the more we chase happiness, the more it eludes us. Because life isn’t really about happiness.
Listen below and let me know what you think!
Immutable Laws Of Living Series:
Life Isn’t Fair
Life Has Challenges
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS