| Life Purpose: What Kind Of Question Is That? |
| Written by Paul Saver | |
| Wednesday, 10 November 2010 | |
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Almost ten years ago I was confronted by a question from my wife that has had me thinking ever since. The question on the surface was pretty harmless and I am sure was asked with the purest of intent. That question was "Paul, are you happy?"
Almost ten years ago I was confronted by a question from my wife that has had me thinking ever since. The question on the surface was pretty harmless and I am sure was asked with the purest of intent. That question was "Paul, are you happy?" On face value, that is a harmless question and I know that my wife was really sincere in asking it. My response was really more of a reaction as I barked back at her by saying "what kind of question is that?" Following on from that I uttered "what has happiness got to do with anything?" I was taken aback by not only my words but the emotion embedded in those words. I know that happiness means different things to different people. However, essentially there are two kinds of happiness. One is what I call "body" happiness which you can buy and is oriented toward physical gratification. The other kind goes to the inner world of the person and can be termed "mind" happiness. Someone who experiences this kind of happiness may have feelings of value, meaning and significance. This kind of experience enables the person to feel like they are "at the right place at the right time doing exactly what I was born to do". Immediately when my wife asked me "Paul, are you happy?" I sensed she was talking about "mind" happiness. What then followed was a reflection process that ultimately led to me becoming an online blogger. Quickly I realized that I had been conditioned all my life to have a strong work ethic and to always take responsibility. You might say that is a healthy type of conditioning. However no where in the equation was there any consideration for my happiness. My thinking about it was such that if happiness came my way, that is good, but not a requirement. On deeper reflection, I realized that being happy is my responsibility. After all, nobody wants to be around someone who is miserable or someone who is going through the motions of being alive but inside the lights have gone out. In other words, no real passion, no real joy. You owe yourself, the ones you love and the people you hang out with a favor. That favor is for you yourself to be deeply happy every day. The famous American author Henry Thoreau said: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still inside them". How about you? Are you just going through the motions everyday in a state of quiet desperation or is the song coming out of you? In other words are you passionate about the moment by moment events in your daily life? The Article Author: Paul Saver has been a teacher of Personal Development for the past thirty years. Go to paulsaver.com toaccessyour FREE copy of "Your Guide To Discovering Your Own Unique Life Purpose" Then while you are visiting his blog,go to his blog post named 21 Questions To Release Your Passion By doing so, you can come to connect with your life purpose and come to enjoy what you do every moment of your life. |
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