The Pursuit of Happiness

“The Pursuit of Happiness”- these famed words were of Thomas Jefferson spoken for United States Declaration of Independence. Long since they were said in 1776, these words continue to inspire people across the world. In 2006, a movie based on the life of entrepreneur Chris Gardner was released with the same title having a letter intentionally misspelled. Ever since I had read those lines and then seen the movie, it had stayed in my mind. But recently, I was able to truly read between the lines and appreciate its meaning.

Recent solitude in my life has lead to many probing thoughts.
One of these is a basic question..”What makes us happy?”
Happiness is a state of mind and it is very relative..Sometimes it oozes from professional achievements…sometimes it is personal bliss..etc.
In this highly competitive world where your every success can be dwarfed by somebody else’s achievement, it can be hardly concluded that academic or professional achievements are a measuring scale of happiness.Similar is personal bliss which stems out from your equations with everybody around you. News of break up of “oh-so-perfect” couples poses a serious question about the authenticity of their seemingly perfect happy days.So what in a day makes it look happy & different from other?Well my cognitive mind says it is the pursuit or the chase.

If you observe relationships which we develop, whether it is with friends or with a special someone (excluding parents because those are purely unconditional & not sublime) the initial days are pretty interesting because we put in some much of our energies to know other’s likes , dislikes and then nurture it. It is always a pursuit of understanding each other and finding ways to impress or share anything & everything that we know or have experienced. Slowly the process gets over and when you think you have totally conquered other’s mind and behavior, the person becomes predictable and irksome.

Same analogy can be built in professional life as well. When you first join a company or start a project, you are all starry eyed having a patient ear and a receptive mind. With the passing days, you become acclimatized to the environment and the work becomes drudgery.

All of us need to understand this unavoidable cycle and learn the art of interest sustenance. Happiness always lies in pursuit. For only minutes of a completion of a task, the sense of exhilaration and contentment prevails. After that the restless mind craves for more. So within the same mundane, we should try to create & chase certain goals, interests to keep the fire within us alive. On the personal front, go and follow your hobby or surprise your near & dear ones with something you haven’t tried before. Professionally, keep learning from every conversation and every thing that we do in a single day. Make realistic goals for yourself and wake up with a sense of purpose.The experiences that we gain while doing a task is much more enriching than accomplishing it. So the bottomline is that there are illimitable things that can be pursued and the simple fact that “Chasing is more fun”.