It is just a matter of chance that one of the greatest movie ever made in hollywood turned out to be about a struggling stock broker and that gives me a chance to discuss this topic in my investment diaries :)
Happiness
So what is your idea of happiness? Do you want to be Jordan Belfort of the "Wolf of Wall Street" or do you want to be Christopher Gardner of the "Pursuit of Happiness"? If you have not seen these movies, I would highly recommend them to you.
The pursuit
To pursue something, we need to first understand what we are pursuing. So if we want to pursue happiness then we need to understand what makes us happy. It will be something unique and different for every individual. But how to figure out what makes us truly happy. You may say that you are already quiet happy in your life, but still I would like you to give it a deep thought.
My definition of happiness?
Happiness is a state of mind that is in perfect equilibrium. You can achieve equilibrium only if your mind is completely free. There are no forces pulling your mind in any direction. No thought about what happened in the past and no uncertainty about what will happen next, no pending business, no uncertainty, just a free mind. You can experience absolute freedom and happiness while doing something only if you have achieved complete mastery and perfection in doing that thing. There is nothing unknown to you. You are all knowledgeable about it and you can do it infinitely for infinity. Think about it, you only pause or struggle or give up on something when you hit a hurdle, an unknown and you don't know how to proceed further. You need to either clear the hurdle or change the course, which makes you unhappy. But once you have achieved mastery in doing something, to the extent that you will never hit a hurdle or an unknown, and if you love what you have mastered you can do it infinitely and forever without any pause, without any concept of time (how long?) or matter (how much?) in it. You are just there, happily doing that something and it is going to be there forever. It is like a beautiful painting, timeless and perfect.
This is why chocolate cannot be something that makes you "truly" happy. You can enjoy only a limited amount of it. It can bring you only limited and temporary happiness, restricted in both time and matter.
The Equilibrium
So how can you achieve the equilibrium point? simple two step process :) Find what is most dear to you, your dream and just dedicate yourself to perfection in it until you have complete clarity, a state of enlightenment about it. So effectively pursuit of happiness is about achieving perfection in what is most dear to you, your dream. Think Usain Bolt the sprinter, Steve Jobs the technologist, Michael Jackson the king of pop, M F Hussain the painter, Aamir Khan the actor, James Cameron the film maker, Warren Buffet the wealth creator, Edison the scientist. They lead a life dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in their field of choice, in their dream. Not everyone achieves 100% perfection but they sure do keep getting closer to it throughout their life,
99%
99.9%
99.99%
99.999%
99.9999%
99.99999% ...
They have already achieved what no one has ever done and still they can keep doing it forever and that according to me is our pursuit of happiness. A common life, a Jordan Belfort life, is hardly worth it. He tried to do lot of things, he tried to enjoy everything but he never achieved perfection in anything. He never achieved enlightenment and ended up in total mess. Neither rich, nor popular, nor happy nor satisfied.
So let me ask you again, what is your idea of happiness? Jordan Belfort of the "Wolf of Wall Street" or Christopher Gardner of the "Pursuit of Happiness"?
Happiness
So what is your idea of happiness? Do you want to be Jordan Belfort of the "Wolf of Wall Street" or do you want to be Christopher Gardner of the "Pursuit of Happiness"? If you have not seen these movies, I would highly recommend them to you.
The pursuit
To pursue something, we need to first understand what we are pursuing. So if we want to pursue happiness then we need to understand what makes us happy. It will be something unique and different for every individual. But how to figure out what makes us truly happy. You may say that you are already quiet happy in your life, but still I would like you to give it a deep thought.
My definition of happiness?
Happiness is a state of mind that is in perfect equilibrium. You can achieve equilibrium only if your mind is completely free. There are no forces pulling your mind in any direction. No thought about what happened in the past and no uncertainty about what will happen next, no pending business, no uncertainty, just a free mind. You can experience absolute freedom and happiness while doing something only if you have achieved complete mastery and perfection in doing that thing. There is nothing unknown to you. You are all knowledgeable about it and you can do it infinitely for infinity. Think about it, you only pause or struggle or give up on something when you hit a hurdle, an unknown and you don't know how to proceed further. You need to either clear the hurdle or change the course, which makes you unhappy. But once you have achieved mastery in doing something, to the extent that you will never hit a hurdle or an unknown, and if you love what you have mastered you can do it infinitely and forever without any pause, without any concept of time (how long?) or matter (how much?) in it. You are just there, happily doing that something and it is going to be there forever. It is like a beautiful painting, timeless and perfect.
This is why chocolate cannot be something that makes you "truly" happy. You can enjoy only a limited amount of it. It can bring you only limited and temporary happiness, restricted in both time and matter.
The Equilibrium
So how can you achieve the equilibrium point? simple two step process :) Find what is most dear to you, your dream and just dedicate yourself to perfection in it until you have complete clarity, a state of enlightenment about it. So effectively pursuit of happiness is about achieving perfection in what is most dear to you, your dream. Think Usain Bolt the sprinter, Steve Jobs the technologist, Michael Jackson the king of pop, M F Hussain the painter, Aamir Khan the actor, James Cameron the film maker, Warren Buffet the wealth creator, Edison the scientist. They lead a life dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in their field of choice, in their dream. Not everyone achieves 100% perfection but they sure do keep getting closer to it throughout their life,
99%
99.9%
99.99%
99.999%
99.9999%
99.99999% ...
They have already achieved what no one has ever done and still they can keep doing it forever and that according to me is our pursuit of happiness. A common life, a Jordan Belfort life, is hardly worth it. He tried to do lot of things, he tried to enjoy everything but he never achieved perfection in anything. He never achieved enlightenment and ended up in total mess. Neither rich, nor popular, nor happy nor satisfied.
So let me ask you again, what is your idea of happiness? Jordan Belfort of the "Wolf of Wall Street" or Christopher Gardner of the "Pursuit of Happiness"?
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