The Purpose Of Life Is Not Happiness: It’s Usefulness

For the longest time, I believed that there's the simplest cause of lifestyles: And this is to be satisfied.

Right? Why else go through all of the ache and difficulty? It’s to attain happiness in some way.

And I’m no longer the simplest person who believed that. In fact, if you go searching you, the majority are pursuing happiness in their lives.

That’s why we together buy shit we don’t want, visit mattresses with people we don’t love, and attempt difficult paintings to get approval of people we don’t like.

Why do we do these items? To be sincere, I don’t care what the precise reason is. I’m now not a scientist. All I recognise is that it has something to do with records, lifestyle, media, economy, psychology, politics, the records generation, and you call it. The list is endless.

We are who we're.

Let’s just accept that. Most people love to analyse why human beings are not satisfied or don’t live pleasurable lives. I don’t necessarily care about the why.

I care more about how we will alternate.

Just some short years ago, I did the entirety to chase happiness.

You buy something, and you believe you studied that makes you happy.

You connect with human beings, and think that makes you glad.

You get a well-paying process you don’t like, and assume that makes you satisfied.

You cross on holiday, and you observe that makes you satisfied.

But on the rest of the day, you’re mendacious on your bed (on my own or next to your spouse), and you suspect: “What’s subsequent to this infinite pursuit of happiness?”

Well, I can let you know what’s next: You, chasing something random that you believe makes you happy.

It’s all a façade. A hoax. A story that’s been made up.

Did Aristotle deceive us whilst he stated:

“Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the entire intention and end of human lifestyles.”

I think we should examine that quote from a distinctive perspective. Because while you examine it, you see that happiness is the main intention. And that’s kind of what the quote says properly.

But right here’s the component: How do you obtain happiness?

Happiness can’t be a goal in itself. Therefore, it’s not something that’s plausible.

I trust that happiness is simply a byproduct of usefulness.

When I speak about this concept with friends, circle of relatives, and colleagues, I usually find it hard to position this into phrases. But I’ll give it a try right here.

Most matters we do in our lifestyles are just sports and experiences.

You pass on holiday.

You go to paintings.

You buy groceries.

You have drinks.

You have dinner.

You purchase an automobile.

Those things must make you satisfied, right? But they're now not useful. You’re no longer developing anything. You’re just ingesting or doing something. And that’s super.

Don’t get me wrong. I love to head on holiday, or buy groceries once in a while. But to be honest, it’s no longer what offers which means to lifestyles.

What virtually makes me satisfied is when I’m beneficial. When I create something that others can use. Or even when I create something I can use.

For the longest time I discovered it hard to explain the idea of usefulness and happiness. But once I these days bumped into a quote via Ralph Waldo Emerson, the dots sooner or later related.

Emerson says:

“The reason for existence isn't always to be happy. It is to be beneficial, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference in which you have lived and lived nicely.”

And I didn’t get that earlier when I became more aware of what I’m doing with my lifestyles. And that always sounds heavy and all. But it’s certainly actually simple.

It comes down to this: What are you DOING that’s creating a difference?

Did you do beneficial things in your lifetime? You don’t ought to change the arena or something. Just make it a bit higher than before you were born.

If you don’t recognize how, right here are a few thoughts.

Help your boss with something that’s no longer your obligation.

Take your mom to a spa.

Create a collage with photographs (not a virtual one) on your spouse.

Write a piece of writing about the things you learned in life.

Help the pregnant lady who also has a 2-yr vintage along with her stroller.

Call your buddy and ask if you may assist with something.

Build a status table.

Start an enterprise and lease an employee and treat them well.

That’s just a few things I love to do. You could make up your very own useful sports.

You see? It’s not anything massive. But when you do little beneficial things every day, it provides as much as a life that is well lived. An existence that mattered.

The ultimate component I want is to be on my deathbed and recognize there’s zero evidence that I ever existed.

Recently I examined Not Fade Away by Laurence Shames and Peter Barton. It’s approximately Peter Barton, the founder of Liberty Media, who shares his thoughts about dying from cancer.

It’s a totally powerful book and it will absolutely convey tears to your eyes. In the e-book, he writes approximately how he lived his life and the way he observed his calling. He additionally went to business school, and that is what he concept of his fellow MBA candidates:

“Bottom line: they have been extraordinarily vivid people who would in no way without a doubt do anything, could never add a lot to society, would leave no legacy in the back of. I found this extraordinarily sad, inside the way that wasted capacity is always sad.”

You can say that approximately everybody. And after he realised that during his thirties, he based a company that turned him right into a magnate.

Another character who usually makes himself beneficial is Casey Neistat. For three years he posted a new video about his lifestyles and work on YouTube. And in each video, he’s doing something.

He additionally talks about how he always wants to do and create something. He even has a tattoo on his forearm that announces “Do More.”

Most people would say, “why could you work extra?” And then they switch on Netflix and watch back to back episodes of the latest TV show that came out.

A one-of-a-kind attitude.

Being beneficial is a mind-set. And like with any attitude, it starts with a decision. One day I woke up and thought to myself: What am I doing for this international? The solution turned into nothing.

And that identical day I started writing. For you it could be portraying, growing a product, supporting elderly, or something you experience like doing.

Don’t take it too critically. Don’t overthink it. Just DO something that’s beneficial. Anything.