"For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin -- real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination."
Monday, November 15, 2010
Greeting Card Sentiment
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5 comments:
Being goal-oriented is of no use in sex or happiness. But it's the only way to avoid unemployment. Still seems a conundrum, though perhaps not to the truly wise.
There's no conundrum. We all carry multiple identities that we don and shed at will. "Work Aileen," "After Work Aileen," "Laze Around the House Aileen" They're all aspects of the same essential person, but some characteristics need to dominate at different times. If I spoke to my friends in "Work Aileen" voice, I wouldn't HAVE any friends. We all do this to some degree, I think.
Work Aileen is very goal oriented. You need to make this product, follow these prescribed steps.
At-Home and After-Work Aileen really don't care so much about things like deadlines and such.
I also think happiness is (mostly) a choice. I woke up absolutely furious today about something, then realized that it was just energy, and I decided to put that energy into being happy. My day got much better, almost immediately, and I didn't feel like I was giving any "feeling" short shrift. I just changed how I wanted to focus on the energy.
It was quite remarkable.
Hey, Don, I have thought about this in the context of work and normal life aspirations and goals. Aileen's answer makes perfect sense. It is like walking carrying a cup of coffee and not looking at the cup because when you do, the coffee starts to slosh. You decide you need to transport the coffee across the office, but while doing so, you can't allow yourself to think of the mechanics of it too much or your unconscious will relinquish control of the cup balancing process, even though it does it better than your conscious mind does.
The whole trick is to realize by "giving up" something, you are not really giving it up. Your ego is giving it up. It will still be taken care of. But you have to prove it to yourself. A conundrum has a pretty fancy label for something that only exists because you don't have all the information.
I dunno. I don't do different identities, not that I know of. I've always subconsciously rebelled against compartmentalizing. Maybe I do it anyway, but the fact I'm distracted 24/7 by a sense I was meant to be doing something other than what I'm doing at the moment makes me feel like I never compartmentalize, never actually fit.*
Maybe it's middle age. I used to be very good at process. Now I can't ever figure it out. Not good in a job where we're creating strict processes for communicating technical information to our customer who's only by far the world's biggest cell phone manufacturer ...
All my whining aside, happiness is a choice, and I didn't really see that until recently. Someone said "Choose to be happy." I didn't know if that meant to "be happy" where I was or to make changes so I could be happy. Chose the latter path, obvii, but the former is a key decision to make on a daily basis anyway. Life is really good if you let it be.
God I'm rambling. Still not goal-oriented particularly. Maybe that's a symptom of not giving a shit, which is a symptom of other things I needn't blather all into Aileen's comment box.
* - There are exceptions, when I know I am in the right place and time exactly. They are very specific and, unfortunately, rare.
I am honored to have you blather in my comment box, Don.
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