If we all want to live in a state of happiness why is it so difficult to attain? Maybe it has something to do with how we try to find it. I’ve heard this time and again but something was different when I turned a page in the book Delivering Happiness.
Life walks us down many roads and it’s common to be told the same thing as we walk, run, or rest along the way. This is why commercials play over and over during your favorite TV show. We need the frequent reminders because that’s just the way our minds work.
While reading Delivering Happiness the graph to the right stared at me. I knew what it was saying and yet there I sat staring at it asking myself how I hadn’t put the pieces together sooner.
Your Thing? or Your Thing!
I’ve lived in the former for so many years wondering why I couldn’t figure out what my thing was. By thing I mean: calling, higher purpose, what I’m on the planet to do, etc. That thing. Have you figured out your thing? If you have you’re one of the lucky ones and it’s awesome! Congrats’s! =D
Me? Well, I care about the environment, animals, human rights, recycling, equality, secularism, LGBTQ rights, children, healthy foods, elder care… The list could go on and on but I have not felt pulled by anything and, I have to say, it was really starting to push my buttons.
How could I not connect with anything? What was I missing? GAH!
So, über brief side note: My amazing wife is one of the lucky ones. She knew what her higher calling was when she was a toddler. Not just that, she knew what her passion was as well. And here I was pacing the apartment, walking the streets, hemming and hawing and what could I come up with? Nada.
Here I was, in a new home/city, thinking that “Of course I’ll figure it out here now that I don’t have any distractions.” Ha!
Sliding Doors
Have you seen the movie Sliding Doors? In short it’s about a woman on two hypothetical paths where we get to see two possible timelines play ou. In one scenario she slips through the closing train doors and in the other, the doors close just as she approaches because someone slows her down for a second.
And that’s the truth of life. One second can affect our lives for better or worse. That moment lives on within us. Maybe we’ll call upon it again. Maybe we won’t.
In the moment that I saw the graph noted above I saw the concepts and words in a new way and then… Click. It hit me… Higher Purpose… o.O How have I not seen it before? I had to say it out loud.
I love inspiring and educating.
How’d this happen? Years of self reflection and then while reading Delivering Happiness it hits me? Why? I actually think I know the answer.
Concepts and Feelings Oh My!
My mind saw a higher purpose as a person, animal, or thing. Should I involve myself in opportunities to stop child prostitution? It’s important. What about the environment and EVERYTHING being done to it? Surely that’s also important.
Animal wellbeing? The homeless? I could continue and that’s what I did until I read something Tony Hsieh wrote numerous times… Delivering Happiness. Read it again and again and again.
It’s not tangible or interactive. It’s a feeling. And it’s a feeling that gets to the core of what nearly everyone wants. But more importantly it’s a feeling!
What’s you’re higher purpose in life? “I love challenging someone to…” Talk about a perfect coach who volunteers on the weekend. I’d never seen it this way before and darn it all I want others who haven’t seen it this way to know what I stumbled upon.
Run with It!
So here you are and here I was. You’re wondering and pondering and pacing. Heck yes you are.
Here’s the moment where I try to help you from afar. Ready?
Tell me, what do you love to do?
Go on, just say it out loud. Who do you want to help? What do you like to do? What do you want to do? Say it. Type it. Leave a comment.
All Together Now
We’re (pretty much) all on the same ride looking for the same end goal, to be happy. There are so many things that could be calling to you as a higher purpose that you may have discounted because society has said “Nah, that’s not important.” but guess what, you’re you and that means you’ve got tons to contribute to that nay saying society because you’re awesome!
Heck yes you are, and I’m super excited to hear what you have to say. What other (un)traditional big things are happening out there that will make the world full of awesome sauce? I’m on the edge of my seat and cannot wait to read your comments. =D