Another attempt to understand what happiness is.
Everyone wants to be happy. Vaguely understanding what happiness is, clumsily trying to build their own model of a happy life and even more clumsily trying to make this model a reality. And everyone takes it seriously, stubbornly frowning, doing something, looking for, finding, losing, and then looking for something else, striving for something else, generally suffering. From a lack of information or from their own stupidity, and sometimes from both.
But what if you plunge into childhood.
For many, these were happy times. And no one cares that the standard of living was worse then, someone drank their parents, someone had problems with money, etc. and so on. But still, most people remember their childhood as the happiest period in their lives. Why? Someone will answer because there were no worries. Someone will remember that he could fool around for days and no responsibility. Everyone has different answers, but the truth is one.
In fact, happiness is (in short) the state of greatest satisfaction with the results of its activities. That is, when a person is busy with something and he is good at it. Happiness comes after the realization of the work done, after its reflection, or spontaneously, in the process of activity. This condition is also called euphoria.
So here. In childhood, the main duty and main work is the knowledge of the world around us and yourself in particular. And the kids do it well. They almost every day learn something new and interesting. At school, on the street, on the radio, on TV, from books, excursions, and from many other sources. Almost every day they promise new emotions and impressions. They always make incredible plans, they have original ideas, they struggle with difficulties, they learn, they develop. Notice how enthusiastically they wake up in the morning when they have something interesting to do on that day. And look with what impatience they are waiting for the planned events. And how happy they are, returning from the movie, after an interesting movie, after the first visit to the zoo or water park. What emotions they rage after the first kiss, or in moments of first love.
But time passes. More and more information settles in their head. Fewer and fewer of those things that can truly surprise and delight a person. Sometimes it seems that nothing new and interesting can happen, nothing like this simply does not exist. Life from an exciting adventure turns into a routine with hundreds of domestic problems, large and small difficulties, various prohibitions and sheer frustrations. They still recognize this world, something new in it, something interesting. They are learning new things and exploring all that is unexplored, but they do not enjoy pleasures like they used to. Why?
Because they do not do what they really like, do not do what brings them pleasure. They learn new things, but this new one is often connected, as a rule, with a “favorite” job or other activity that they don’t like. People study at the university for lawyers and economists, without feeling sympathy for this profession. They were simply told that being a lawyer was profitable. And even when they do something that is supposed to give them pleasure (they go on vacation to exotic countries), they cannot enjoy it. Because they are so tired, they just want to relax, and not engage in knowledge. Or people have fun and rest, but since they do it at home on their usual day off. For in another way they do not know how to rest.
HAPPINESS IS IN THAT EVERY DAY TO DO AND LEARN SOMETHING IS NEW.
DO SOMETHING ONCE AND FOR ALL THE LIFE ...
Make a child, build a house, have a dog, and much, much more ... The main thing is to do it well and enjoy the rest of your life.
