Happiness is a preferred state of mind and condition of health given the prevailing environmental circumstances that we find ourselves in. Sometimes these circumstances involve contraints that impair our ability to succeed. They can also be opportunites that allow us move along on our trajectory of what we consider to be success. Oftentimes what appears to be a problem is actually an opportunity. At the same time too many opportunities create a new problem of choice.

If happiness is the same as success then this implies that happiness is a goal to be achieved. If that is the case then we can never be happy as we must always set new goals. If happiness were a goal then it could be just be achieved. However, happiness is a condition that must be cultivated, managed, and maintained. Goals only serve to maintain happiness they do not create it.

If one cannot be happy unless they succeed then they are always dependent on the next win. Even if an athelete wins a gold medal there is still the next Olympic games and finally there is the question of retirement when health ultimately deteriorates. Happiness is a state of mind that enables us to succeed whether goals are achieved or not.

"When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”
--Confucius

Goals therefore maintain a state of happiness but must also be used to create the very environmental circumstances that will ultimately be the fertile ground from which new goals will be developed and problems will be solved. Goals are the pillars of happiness but goals arise from circumstances and circumstances involve the personal history and evolution of the individual along with numerous external factors.

If a person cannot consistently achieve goals then they have discovered a problem. Once a problem is discovered it is already halfway solved. Therefore, even failure can be converted into an opportunity if the perception allows it. Failure is an opportunity to improve and learn. Success or failure does not matter but rather the way you live and how you live that determines your path to happiness.

People without goals feels lost or that life is meaningless. Goals give us a purpose. People are instinctively and psychologically driven to struggle. If there is no struggle then people will create one. It is much better to create your own struggle than to wait for life to give you one. Therefore to be happy one must choose their battles wisely. There are no concientious objectors in this war because it is a war against one’s own self which means that the struggle is to build the state of perception we consider appropriate. This could be destructive or constructive.

To the alcoholic (a culturally appropriate term for drug addiction involving alcohol) getting another drink is a goal and they feel that they have succeeded in achieving a goal when rewarded with a drink. Nevertheless, this self destructive behavior which masks itself as a goal and reward does not satisfy the definition of a goal because drug addiction is a habit not the static state that a goal requires. Just as self destructive behavior is a habit so is excellence.

A goal should develop an individual in a way that they can reach a higher state of evolution. Evolution could be measured economically, socially, physically, mentally, or spiritually. In business goals must be measurable and time based. However life goals are never achieved. Life goals are lived. They are goals in motion. They are habits. Developing good habits with regards to health and thinking lead to happiness.

Happiness is an internal state but this internal state is often dependant on environmental factors such as culture,health,and economics. Unless we are living in the mountains on a self sustaining farm without using money or trading we are intimately dependant on the economic system for our health and ultimately state of mind. It could be argued that systematic economic factors that go largely unnoticed by most people ultimately affect their health and state of mind. Health determines mood and clarity of thinking.

Many people do not make the connection to health and happiness but they are often the same thing. Dangerous chemicals and low quality food may be convenient or taste good but over time the body is ruined and the mind weakened. A weak mind has more stress because the problem solving capability is diminished thereby creating a self reinforcing cycle of mental decay. Maintaining physical health gives one the ability to think clearly and overcome problems in other areas.

To achieve a preferred state of mind and health we must look beyond economics and toward a grander scheme in the universe. This is the area of mystery and theory. This is the area of culture which includes history and operational definitions of things such as love, wealth, relationships, and other abstract qualitative cultural factors that create a context within which we assign values to physical and emotional states. It is the way that reality itself is defined and happiness is the perceived which is excellence in this self contructed paradigm.

For the billionaire making a million dollars may be just a gratifying as a homeless man getting a free meal. This is the subject of utlility theory in economics. One glass of water could be more valuable than diamonds in a desert but an ocean of water is devastating if your life is the the Titanic. Too much or too little of anything leads to "the middle way". It is a natural balance that resists indulgence while being satisfied with few wants or desires.

Happiness is largely the way a person defines their circumstances. However those circumstance evloved, our perception of those circumstances affects the way we set goals that change them. Our circumstances should be examined through a lens of cultural and physical standards that we impose on our external environment. As a painter imposes his or her impression on the canvas, we force our experiences to conform to a reality that has been shaped by cultural and historical knowledge. Forcing conformity has the effect of creating illusions and being unable to cope with changes as they occur.

Survival is obviously a prerequiste for happiness except in rare cases of chronic suffering where a person must transcend life and give up their attachments completely. Culture is the paradigm that defines the context within which we procure the necessary requirements for survival. Some people adapt and take on attributes of all the cultures they touch while others live within a rigidly confined paradigm.

Even religion is a part of cultural exposure, often a rigid paradigm in which there is only one standard for all routines and interactions is defined albeit ambiguous and open to multiple interpretations. The rigid paradigm could be thought of as disciplined perfection that achieves the theoretical state of happiness the individual wants to achieve. But this rigidness can inhibit learning and adapting if taken to extremes just as loosely defined cultural morals and values can lead to self destructive behavior and isolation within society. So the perception is derived from the experience one gains and this experience is defined through five senses as well as other ways of perceiving reality. So happiness is a reality one creates for themeselves through perception and it is a continuous state of mind which transforms into a habit.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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