Is happiness the only goal that really motivates you?

Happy life Vs A meaningful life 

When you think about yourself, what would you rather be: to be happy or to have a life full of meaning and significance?

Of course, you can have both, but most of us unknowingly choose the one, a happy life that means many comforts, fulfillment of desires and a life in which we feel "oiled". Let's think about whether the New Year's resolutions (which are current before the beginning of each new year) were aimed at a happy life or a life that will bring you meaning and meaning for you and/or for your family.

Honestly, one of the most popular New Year's resolutions that I hear from the participants of my courses is "to enjoy life" or "to be happy". People usually put happiness (in addition to health) as the most important category at the top of their decisions. The concept of happiness and enjoyment is promoted daily in the media, through advertisements (especially it is strengthened around the New Year), then in all the books and motivational speeches that promote positive psychology and offer you the key to the secret of happiness.

Is happiness the only goal that motivates you?

There is a difference between leading a happy life and a meaningful life, and believe it or not, achieving happiness has a lot more to do with the latter. For example, do you know that the Greek philosophers also thought about this, who recognized these two faces of happiness thousands of years ago. They described the first as hedonia, an ancient Greek word that denotes a state of personal satisfaction and happiness, and the second is eudaimonia, which is most closely defined as personal well-being, or in other words, achieving a meaningful life through self-actualization and inner fulfillment. but in a wider context than the personal one.

Today's man usually looks at leading a happy life through the satisfaction of personal pleasures interspersed with many enjoyments. However, a life full of meaning and significance contains much greater value and happiness. Living a meaningful life often means contributing to someone or something beyond yourself and your own pleasures and limits. For example, a mother who has given up her professional career and ambition for the welfare of her child when he is young or maybe handicapped, leads a life full of meaning and significance. The man who after his working hours does what he likes and works 18 hours a day, while perhaps giving up many things, leads a life full of meaning and significance. Then the woman who selflessly volunteers and directly participates in humanitarian actions helping the old and abandoned, or dogs on the street, must have found meaning in her life!

But since the meaning and meaning of life is mostly related to facing one's shortcomings, getting out of the comfort zone and/or investing in something bigger, this way of living is associated with stress, effort or struggle, so ordinary (small) citizens (who are on the rise lately) they say ..Ah, he is not happy! "Wow, poor thing, she is struggling", or even worse, "She has nothing to do with herself..." and what not!

Of course, you can have happiness and meaning in life. I'm just pointing out here that when we're just happy, we enter the personal comfort zone, and it's not easy to get out of there! In fact, if you are happy all the time, we become lazy, we become out of touch with ourselves and the environment, or with the social situation and poverty around us. Today we definitely live in a world of abundance, parties, carefree and everyone wants to have it.

But what does it mean to live a life of meaning or purpose?

People say that their lives are meaningful when they feel they have a purpose, a direction and an added value to live for. They are:

- Aimed at some goal that is directly motivated and related to oneself
– Able to understand and accept life's situations and direct them towards their overarching goal or motive
– Caring for themselves and others, because they believe that their own life has a purpose and is significant for themselves and humanity.

For example, try for a month without stopping to do something that will make you happy, for example make love with the most beautiful person for you. How long will you be happy and how long will you last? Or try for a month to do the same thing with the person you love, but every day take on one additional activity that will give you additional value in life, for example call a friend you are angry with, forgive someone who wronged you, help a child learn a task, visit a poor person and help him if you can't materially by talking, or when was the last time you spoke to a stranger without expecting anything in return and so on).

How do you think you will feel better and how you will stay happy and fulfilled longer?

If you only do what gives you pleasure, the mind will start asking for more and more, looking for something more and different. But if you direct your happiness and activity towards something that will bring you more value in life, the feeling of happiness is far more authentic and will last longer, so those people who live this way often say that they are more and more "enriched". inspired" and "feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves".

In the long run, the ability to find meaning in your life is truly true happiness!

So don't just look for happiness, look for your purpose and your meaning in life. Dive into yourself and discover what's inside you. What have you buried under your obligations, worries and sufferings. And instead of choosing a project, hobby or relationship that will make you happy, focus on those things that make your life more important, more valuable and happier. If you achieve happiness and satisfaction, great! But if it doesn't happen, that's fine too, it's human nature to always seek happiness, so you'll get it later, but you'll know inside that now and here your life is important and valuable to yourself and others, and that it is you who contribute to the improvement of a condition, a situation or the society in which you live. And that's exactly what puts an authentic smile on your face!

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