How Chasing Happiness Affects Our Life Choices

People spend their whole lives searching for their happily ever after, but it looks different for everyone

“Happiness is letting go of what you think your life is supposed to look like and enjoying it for everything that it is.”- Mandy Hole

Happiness — the blissful and fulfilling feeling we all crave.

From the very beginning, everyone is taught emotions and feelings. Happy, sad, angry, excited, and so on. And with each of these feelings, we gain a basic understanding of what brings them about.

However, as we grow, learn, and mature, we begin to realize that these basic ranges of emotions span into levels of how they come to be.

For example, a child may be happy when they watch their favorite movie. A simple need met. But as that child grows older, it's about who they watched that movie with and the experience it brought that brings that happiness.

So, why do we feel we continuously chase the goal of happiness?

Having experienced happiness at some point during your lifetime, we desire to have that feeling again. To feel anything under the umbrella of happiness such as contentment, accomplishment, bliss, being complete, full, or satisfied. But what happens when that feeling fades.

We continue to chase that feeling.

But, why do we lose that happiness? Why do these moments of happiness feel as if they are fleeting or incomplete?

This is largely because of two components.

Society:

The society that we live in today thrives on sharing accomplishments.

And yes, they should all be celebrated, however, it also sets this imaginary bar in the minds of many. An invisible bar of what happiness is measured in. Whether this be excelling in a job, owning expensive cars, traveling the world, or starting a family. Having it all.

When people see others excelling, they feel as if they too need to add these to their own happiness quota.

Our changing needs:

The more we change and grow, the more our own picture of happiness changes.

We dream of a career, we dream of starting a family, or we dream of starting a business. And then only day this dream evolves. And for this, instead of an imaginary societal status bar, we form a goal to reach.

A goal that once reached will prove we have reached the state of happiness we so craved.

Focusing on the things that bring us true happiness will in the end is what will make the feeling last.

Happiness is the feeling we keep chasing because what defines our happiness keeps changing.

However, despite what you feel defines your happiness, be sure that you focus on what truly makes you happy. Because even the smallest things can make a difference and can play a part in the large picture.