In Pursuit of happiness- do you know what makes you happy?

When you recall yourself as a kid playing football, does it bring back stress-free pleasant times from the past?

Do you call it absolute freedom? or happiness?

It sure sounds like happiness is freedom and freedom is happiness. But is it true as well?

And have you grown up and things are different today to play football and feel absolutely happy?

In so many ways, with various contexts in books, articles, proverbs, and movies I came across, they say in one way or another that happiness is “freedom”.

The secret to happiness is freedom… And the secret to freedom is courage. -Thucydides

Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom. -George Washington Carver

Are you free to do what you want?

Freedom sure opens the door to everything else you might do to feel happy; but, it isn’t by itself what makes you happy.

Some might say what kind of freedom are we talking about here- financial freedom, freedom from having to be accepted in a society, freedom of religion, freedom of thoughts and freedom to be courageous or to speak.

Imagine in a perfect world, you have all of the above. To sum up- the freedom of all sorts desirable.

Now, what do you see yourself doing while if, according to you by being free you would be happy?

Wonder till you see it.

While you are imagining a perfect world, in practicality it is impossible. And here, in no way, the word “impossible” says “I am possible”.

In addition to our perfect world being a thing, we also have to imagine the existence of all sorts of freedom which are all dependent on the people of the entire world.

You must think, then there is no happy person thing in reality. But wait, we don’t need to change all the dependencies to be in our favor to experience happiness — does it make being happy thinkable?

Back to what you see yourself doing in that world where you see yourself happy.

• Are you reading a magazine laying beside your personal swimming pool, under the shade of a standing umbrella sipping on an expensive wine?
• Do you see yourself walking down the stairs of a mansion passing the guards in black uniform towards a Mercedes that is waiting for you with its door held open by your chauffeur to drive through a huge main gate about 200 meters away?
• Do you see yourself with the people you care about?
• Do you see yourself hosting a grand event?

Whatever you see yourself doing in your happy time- do you have an identity in your imagination?

Do you know who and what you are in them?

If not, take your imagination a little further. Picture what you’re doing next and thereafter in your story.

Do not read any further, think about what you see yourself doing. 

Without giving some time into thinking here, this article will not be helpful to you.

Think of how you will spend your entire day and the next day before moving ahead.

Lost? 

Don’t know what you should make happen next? Are you happy while you feel this in your imagination- not knowing?

It is wonderful to know who you are in your story and what you do while living the life that makes you happy.

But if you’re stuck, you’re soon to arrive at what makes you happy.

See for yourself that having all the freedom and being affluent alone does not give you ultimate happiness. They give you momentary happiness which is dependent on other people or factors. When you eliminate those factors, you find yourself alone. You’ll always, therefore, want to find engagement to fill the empty time like your weekends and holidays.

Whoever you be, what keeps you up and happy is a purpose by keeping you — engaged!

The purpose doesn’t have to be a huge goal for your life. It could be something as simple as a hobby. And to pursue it, you do not need the universe to create a perfect environment, you are only held by your will.

The motive of a purpose is for you to be engaged in doing or pursuing what you care about or are happy being involved in all by yourself like running a support group or being part of a group of like-minded people on any topic of your choice- art, craft, animal love, care for less fortunate, etc.

Sometimes though, finding this purpose and always having something to do by yourself that you really like is difficult.

You aren’t alone if you feel there is nothing that you would like to be engaged in while alone and be happy with it. You just find it boring?

There are too many people who share your frustration.

Answer to why don’t you find yourself busy in your free time is that while racing through your life, education, career, and competition you somewhere forced yourself to stop caring about everything other than what needed your immediate attention — like exams and fear of scoring low, getting accepted in a good college, earning good money to live that lavish lifestyle or find yourself a partner, etc. 

But, there was a time when you cared!

Everything you do does not have to earn you money or be worth putting your time into.

If you like it, it is worth it!

Got nothing yet?

You still have nothing to worry. We aren’t trying to become billionaires or succeed at rocket science or these days one might say data science, but simply finding something to be engaged in, while may be causing a positive impact on someone, or society, or nation, or environment, or just someone we care for.

Think hard of those days growing up. There should be a lot of things you cared for, a lot of causes for which you protested in your mind but never really had the opportunity to pursue them. You can pursue them now! Like planting trees across the city, taking pottery lessons, learning Bharatnatyam or whatever else it was that you couldn’t do earlier and really wanted to.

Pick the ones that still matter to you and start working on them. While you do that I should highlight that you that no successful person always loved doing what they do. They “like” doing it only after working really hard on it “to be able to like it” because their practice made them good at it.

If you’re picking up something long lost, it will take some time for you to get in the feeling again and do it. But you must not stop until you have given it considerable time, that extra time you’re putting in will engage you into the task you’ve picked. And at the end engagement is what will keep you busy in your free time giving you a purpose and in turn- happiness!

Don’t worry if you’re still hung up at what is it that you should do. Everyone has something interesting that they do really well and to find it, you have to drill deep into your life and your thoughts. 

Often you’ll see your friends or colleagues will be the ones to come up with what you are best at or something that they admire about you. You’ll be amazed at how they are so right about your skills that you’ve been living with without admiring yourself!

To save you from anxiety, I will also emphasize that it could take as long as a year for you to get actively involved in something and that you don’t have to do one good thing all your life. You may have multiple interests that you’ll pursue simultaneously or otherwise while satisfying the motive of being happily engaged in your personal life whether with or without a partner.

Engagement is the key to happiness!