Why Happiness is Overrated

happinessI had fresh strawberries, a nutella croissant and a French pressed cup of coffee for my petit dejeuner. And I sit on my bed and write.

What is the point of life? The point is to live. Not necessarily to be happy, because it’s not possible to be happy all the time (you can be sometimes happy all of the time, and always happy some of the time, but you can’t be always happy all of the time) that’s the nature of the beast. The point is to feel fresh. Staleness leads to unhappiness and since people are scared of fresh change they find themselves crusty, rather unhappy.

Steve Jobs told me you must ask yourself every day: if my life were to end tomorrow, would I be happy doing what I am doing? And if the answer is no too many days in a row, then you need to change. Simple as that. If you follow this heuristic, then you will be happy. You may not have a job with great benefits and you may not have a wife and kids or even that Mercedes you’ve wanted since you were eight, but you may, too.

Happiness is great. But it isn’t all there is. If it were, then what would we strive for?

The striving to see and do new sensations and feelings and to become good at one thing is the purpose of life.

By Daniel Ryan Adler

Daniel Adler writes fiction and nonfiction and is finishing his MFA at University of South Carolina.

1 comment

  1. It’s what I also tell artist, no one has to present a smiling face all the time, a writer by compulsion, should write what they feel, so if you feel sad, write it, if you feel lost, write it. There’s no need to fake it. Because frankly, we all can’t be flowers and sunshine 24/7.

    Good post 🙂

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