We often seek happiness by choosing activities we enjoy. Whether this amounts to eating a good meal, reading an entertaining book, or parking ourselves down in front of the television, these moments of pleasure are fleeting. Programmer, essayist and inventor Paul Graham argues that if you’re looking for long-lasting happiness, you’ll only find it in activities you admire:
Image: John O’Nolan.
To be happy I think you have to be doing something you not only enjoy, but admire. You have to be able to say, at the end, wow, that’s pretty cool. This doesn’t mean you have to make something. If you learn how to hang glide, or to speak a foreign language fluently, that will be enough to make you say, for a while at least, wow, that’s pretty cool.
Paul suggests setting your sites high and avoiding activities that don’t automatically incite that “wow” for you. If they don’t, it’ll be tougher to feel truly happy about your accomplishments. Has this proven true in your life? Let us know in the comments.
How to Do What You Love [Paul Graham via Swissmiss]
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