The Pursuit of Happiness

What is happiness? When you mention this word to someone, they immediately have an idea in their mind of what this is. However, it can also be elusive and something that isn’t quite as easy to define. You Google the term and get all kind of answers. Most would say it’s a feeling of joy, contentment, something having to do with positivity. We spend our lives searching for this happiness. Some find it, others don’t. It’s easy to turn on the TV or news these days and see that the world isn’t “happy”. However, to those that are able to find this elusive thing called happiness, they live long and productive lives.

Happiness in today’s terms has taken a different meaning than say back in the 1700s. The Declaration Of Independence has in it “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. Why does it say “pursuit” though? Happiness is something to be pursued and it just doesn’t come to you from the cosmos? Happiness in the 1700s had a different meaning. Happiness back then was actually a pursuit of living a virtuous life. We think of happiness today as pleasure but the enlightenment thinkers back in the day defined it as pursuing virtue, as in being a good person rather than just feeling good. They were lifelong learners committed to practicing good habits daily that lead to character improvement and self mastery. You didn’t obtain happiness, you pursued it, worked at it daily, was disciplined to it. It was a life long quest that took daily discipline to achieve. Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman statesman and scholar in fist century BC, said that

“The mere search for higher happiness, not merely its actual attainment, is a prize beyond all human wealth or honor or physical pleasure.”

Philosophers from Pythagoras, Cicero, and Aristotle up to Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton, and John Locke all studied and wrote about this daily discipline to achieving happiness through action. Not just sitting around and waiting for life or karma to give it to you.

I have found myself to believe in this as well. You’ll hear people say that you need to “discover yourself” and “find out who you are.” I’m not sure I agree with that. For me, I say to create who you want to be. Achieve to be that person whom you want others to talk positively about at your funeral. (Kinda dark I know but motivating as well). The ancient Stoics believed that in order to achieve happiness, tranquility, or freedom, we should stop trying to control what happens to us and focus on what only WE can control. For example, don’t react but respond. Control your thoughts, desires, and most importantly your actions. This goes back to Marcus Aurelius’ saying “you are what you think.”

Your thoughts have power. They shape your life in so many ways. The bible tells us to take every thought captive and test it to see if its good, true, or decent, bringing it into the obedience of Christ. Through my own personal journey of life, in this time, I pursue to practice this daily as best I can. There is enough negativity out there in the world. Practice being who you want to be. Live a life of focus that is driven by your core philosophies. Create who you want to be.