Be Happy Now?—?Drugs, Sex & Hangovers or Work, Stress & Exhaustion?
I Believe Young People Can & Should be Happy Today.
One day far away, I will be happy.
One day after pain and struggle, I will be happy.
One day after most of my life has passed, I will be happy!
You see, for a long time I was confused. I had the wrong idea of happiness. Until I grew up and the world told me how to be happy, I was wasting my time.
I used to make the foolish mistake of thinking happiness was warm Sunday afternoons running and playing and perhaps a nap.
I used to think happiness was being surrounded by family and easily finding a smile at the jokes and jibs.
I used to think happiness was sunsets behind clouds and a full tank of gas.
I was so mistaken. I used to think happiness was now and that even as a young kid it was for me. Now I understand the truth.
When my happiness will come.
In the future! It’ll come in the future. After I have sacrificed much and attained financial success my happiness, true and genuine happiness, will arrive in my life!
I only have to slog through the next 20-years of life until I am about 40 to earn my happiness.
Now that I know the truth, now that the world has revealed what true happiness is and banished all my childhood fancies of happiness made simple (happiness made attainable), now I can live my life correctly.
I will chase the money without admitting it is what I pursue.
I will chase power because having control is the only way I can convince myself that I am doing something right.
I will hand over my joy, my love for what exists now, and my desire to make someone smile every day, and then! then I will be truly happy!
How my happiness will come.
Haven’t you heard? The world gives happiness away for free once you have met her demands! Once you have played her game and followed her rules, then, and only then, can you claim your prize that is happiness!
It is the only way.
Otherwise, why would the entire world around me be playing the same game according to the same rules.
Make decisions that sacrifice the now for the bright (promised) future.
Live in spiritual, physical, and emotional poverty in order to earn my success and subsequent happiness as a product of the pain endured.
Maintain a relentless focus on future success in every decision I make in my youth and young adulthood.
Learn to love pain, suffering, uncertainty, and compromise as a sign that I am undoubtedly on the right path toward successful happiness.
I must die today in order to live in 20 years.
This is one side of the spectrum. Those who completely sacrifice today for the far away tomorrow.
Happiness through conformity.
You know what, screw all that talk of killing myself now in order to be happy in my distant future.
That is crazy. I want to be happy right now. No waiting.
An easy way to go about being happy now is to make easy decisions. After all, hard decisions innately carry some burden or weight that seems contrary to the happiness that I am seeking. Therefore, making easy decisions is the obvious answer.
In order to be happy today and avoid all that crazy “sacrifice for the future” stuff, I will take the path of least resistance.
I will meander through this life in order to avoid all unnecessary difficulty.
Conformity is my answer.
Maybe I do not know all the right answers and maybe I don’t know how to go out and find what I am looking for. But there is an easy answer!
If everyone around me is doing it surely they can’t all be wrong! Conformity becomes my guiding credo.
The easiest way to find happiness now is to believe that everyone around me knows something I don’t know and to decide to follow them without question.
Happiness through instant gratification.
My compass follows the flow of the crowd around me and they seem to have figured something out. There is a lifestyle that is sure to bring happiness and it is within reach!
I will simply help my search for happiness along with some weed and occasional drinking.
And eventually, as I truly learn the ways of those who are happy now, I can learn how to rely on coke and maybe some adderral.
You know there might be something to this whole ‘get-blackout-drunk-three-days-a-week’ thing too! It seems like the perfect way to make sure that I am taking advantage of my youth and my ability to bounce right back!
I mean, life is about being happy, right? So why in the world would I decline myself the super fun pleasures of the now? This is so clearly the true path to happiness.
If I do not want to be a crazy person that partakes in obsessive drunkenness and mind-numbing drugs, perhaps I can find the same escape through Netflix! I want to spend my days dreaming of what life could be like if my reality were different.
This is the opposite side of the spectrum. Those who chose to indulge the now completely forsaking tomorrow.
There must be third option.
I do not want to live my life waiting for the day I can finally breathe and let myself be happy. Sure, wealth and success seem to be beautiful things for what they allow you to do once you attain them.
But why do we desire massive wealth so much? For what purpose? Is it to be happy? If so, I fear that we are missing the point of every less wealthy day of our lives.
If we are killing ourselves today in order to be hugely successful tomorrow because we want to live a happy life, I fear we have been greatly misled.
Nor do I want to live my life in a mindless pursuit of nothing more than the next thing that falls into my lap or is handed me by the crowd around me.
Why do we desire instant gratification and the increasingly difficult satisfaction of our primal urges? What is the purpose? Is it to find answers to the questions we are afraid to fully face? Is it to prove that we can be happy now without the pain of waiting on the elusive future happiness?
Sacrifice for tomorrow and satisfaction today are not evil.
It is not wrong to make decision today that may hurt but will bring future reward.
Nor is it wrong to find satisfaction today (although my personal opinion on substance is that it is abused nearly 100% of the time).
But we must ask ourselves, you must ask yourself, what is the purpose?
Why am I killing myself for untold wealth in my future? Is it because I think it will make me happy? Why can’t I be happy between today and the day I earn my first million?
Why am I numbing my mind to the difficulties of life through momentary pleasures? Is it to try to live every day happy and in fear of the larger questions I can’t answer? Why can’t I be happy every day without the fleeting distractions?
Why can’t I be happy just as myself?
Someone once observed that,
“People are usually about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
My suggestion: happiness now. the ability and in fact privilege of anyone to be happy today while yet planning for the future and living in the present.