Ask anyone in the street what they’d like in life and generally it’s to be happy.
Of course some may say that they’d like things like their health or to win the lottery, but almost without exception it’s to be happy. It’s a universal thing too regardless of culture or creed. It just seems that everyone wants to be happy. So what is this happiness thing and how do you get it?
I’m not going to pretend at the outset though that the message about the journey towards happiness and success is all good news. Neither am I going to suggest that it’s easy. There are no silver bullets here.
Let's get the bad news over first.
In short, happiness and success is ongoing and you never really arrive. Part of me wishes that I could tell you that there was an end point and that there was a spot that you could aim for and you would some day get there and say “I’ve made it,” but it “ain’t necessarily so.” It’s a journey; it’s a process. Having said that though, there are certainly things that you can do to promote more happiness in your life and more fulfilment. No doubt about it.
Someone once wrote, “Most people live in survival, not in fulfillment.”
Striving for fulfillment
What we’re looking for as a society today are tips about that journey, tips about how we can be more happy than not, more successful than not. Let me say it again in case you missed it! Most people live in survival, not in fulfilment. So the challenge today is how we actually move towards fulfilment; how do we get that? How do we strive for that? What does it mean?