Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The pursuit of happiness





We may pursue happiness
but is that the right strategy?



Our fedral Constitution gives us this guarantee:
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
But is pursuit the way to achieve it?
Novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne saw the folly in it.
He called happiness a butterfly.
Pursued, it’s always just beyond your grasp.
But sit down quietly, it might alight on you.
John Stuart Mill framed the Happiness Paradox.
To be happy, fix your mind on other things.
Pay attention, he said, to the work at hand.
Even street sweepers, Martin Luther King said.
Be the best street sweeper you can be.
Take pride in the work you have been given.
Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer was realistic.
He saw men become frustrated in pursuing happiness.
Our pursuit of material things is pointless, he said.
Once we obtain them, we no longer desire them.
Focus on ideas, actions and goals of value.
Pursue and achieve your great purposes in life.
This is the masterwork God gives to each of us.
Be grateful for and gracious about those gifts.
Happiness comes from:
• Sweeping the best you can sweep.
• Performing the mission you were sent here to do.
Do that and happiness will take care of itself.
Tell me about your own pursuits. What you value.
What your great purpose in life is.
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For more on purpose in life, click here.