Striving and Living

I spend a lot of time trying to be happy, trying to get in shape, trying to do one thing or another.  The goal of trying is to reach a point where you can say, “Hey, I did it.  I rule.”  I wonder, though, if in the process of trying, I am missing out on something.

Life

This is kind of a weird thing.  We are all conditioned in one way or another to strive for something.  What do we want to be when we grow up?  What school do you want to get in to?  How much have we saved for retirement?  When is our next promotion?  Where is a relationship going?  And on and on and on.  This is kind of a gray area for me, at this point anyway.  If I really think about it, it makes sense, but it goes against how I have been thinking for most of my life.  Having a goal gives a sense of purpose, but if you follow Buddhist thought, the purpose for living is being happy.  I like that idea.  

The purpose for living is being happy.

Soak that in.  

So, do we just kind of float along on a gentle breeze and enjoy the moments we are given?  Is it to that degree that we live?  Or is it more that we ride along a river, feet in the water and feeling the sun, and if we see something that catches our eye, we paddle to it so that we might enjoy it until we push off and follow the flow of life?

Should we avoid forming goals all together?  What about little goals?

I like having little goals….or do I like that they give me a sense of purpose?

Answer:   I don’t know.  

The slippery slope of over thinking is looming ahead of me, so before I hit it I think I have some sort of an answer to part of this quandary.   Part of that answer, in fact, lies in not over thinking.  To pursue something at the cost of all else will cause us to miss out on a great dealt that life has to offer and ultimately that goal, that thing that we are striving for, won’t bring us happiness.  Getting the job, finishing a race, hitting a weight goal, or writing a blog are not sources of happiness.  They are just things.  Yes, we find some pleasure in them, but they have that every tricky trait that all things have…Impermanence.  We finish them and they are done.  If you tie your happiness to that goal, you will lose the joy it gave you when it goes away. 

So, I think that the whole idea here is to enjoy the little adventures you take – doing a play, writing a book, running a marathon, working for a promotion, climbing a mountain – but don’t tie yourself to them.  They are what they are for the moment they are there.  When they are gone, let them go.  There are others to be had.  

This “goal” of mine to find happiness is constant, and I think that I focus a lot on the end result – the happiness that I will feel.  In doing this, I might be missing out on the happiness I can feel right now.  Maybe this is the lesson to learn here.  

And that we don't need to finish something to say "I rule."  We already do.

“A man who says he knows is already dead. But the man who thinks, ‘I don’t know,’ who is discovering, finding out, who is not seeking an end, not thinking in terms of arriving or becoming - such a man is living, and that living is truth.”

-Krishnamurti