Don't Pursue Happiness…
In response to my Stop Seeking Happiness post, Joel Bush posted an excellent comment that referenced an article about the positive influence Marines’ boot camp has on its recruits. (The article is absolutely worth reading, click here).
I really appreciate the excellent contribution to the post from Joel…the money line was this quote from the article:
Don’t pursue happiness; pursue excellence.
which is really just awesome. Take a moment to meditate on that line and realize it’s power.
I saw Joel at Cheezburger Night at the Mariners last week, and since then I’ve been thinking about his comment. As I’ve been considering this, what comes to my mind is substituting the word “excellence” for “creativity”. I don’t mean creativity only like an art project, but rather creativity as the act of creating something.
I’m not saying the original quote is wrong or off-base. In fact, they are not mutually exclusive. I just realized that, for me, it is creativity that causes meaning and happiness.
I have to agree with you Scott. During my early years, I was a bit of a troubled youth and was lost and unhappy with life. The more I have focused and worked at things that I love though, the happier I have become. When I was trying to directly pursue happiness through physical pleasures (food, women, alcohol), I kept moving further away from it. Now that I am pursuing creativity and excellence in my life, happiness has been a nice side-effect.
Joel Gross
15 Jul 09 at 1:43 pm