Another post on the theme of happiness. I want to be happy. So I think to myself: "What would it take for me to be happy?"
And a bunch of answers come to mind - if I had a hot blonde girlfriend, an awesome job, and reached blah blah level in all these activities, then I would be happy.
But this is hedemonia - the pursuit of happiness as a state obtained when one achieves goals. But the danger here is the human mind keeps reassessing what it imagines to be success. As soon as we achieve one goal, or satiate one desire, 10 others emerge. So the answer to being happy is really more than achieving the goals one sets.
The answer is in eudomonia - enjoying the process through which one chases those goals. Every journey must have an end, but in the end, it's the journey that matters. Once you introduce eudomonia into your life, you will be forever happy. The goal suddenly loses its importance, and you are in a state of constant bliss.
A great example of how I've caused unhappiness in my life through hedemonia is when I go out to a fancy club on Saturday night to pick up a girl. I've set myself that goal. So, instead of having fun, I've constantly got that goal in mind, and when it doesn't work out at the end of the night, I drive myself mad with frustration. I've often heard my friends tell me that the times they've been most successful at getting girls were when they were having the most fun, and were least expecting it. So, the lesson to be learned is that I should go out to the club with the idea of having a good time, and keep working at getting a girl without making that the absolute focus. And if I can't have fun otherwise then I should scrap going out completely - life is too short to waste.
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