People are always searching for the ultimate goal of their lives. The most common idea is to get a decent education of some sort, get married, and raise a family. Some people see their goals as something more or less than that idea. For me, I try to focus on one step at a time while always keeping the ultimate specific goals for my future. However, the word I hear most often when it comes to anyone's hopes for the future is simply "happiness." In my experience, I have seen that searching for contentment is a peaceful feeling for long term satisfaction in day-to-day life.
Now, don't confuse my meaning here. Of course, I want to be happy. We all do. I have just noticed that happiness involves a rush of feeling. It's the loudest thump of a heartbeat or the way a person's eyes light up when they receive good news. Happiness is being on top of a mountain and breathing in clear, clean air, and I have always noticed how drastic that happiness fades if something causes someone to falter, or heaven forbid, fall from their mountain.
However, being a solidified content human being helps so much with the everyday life I have to live. Contentment is being able to exhale the stress out of my body after I submit a paper. It's the emotional expression of surprise when I reunite with a familiar face that I have not seen in what feels like an eternity. Being content is about being at peace no matter what place you're at in life. No one is always able to feel any single emotion that there is, but being content with what life throws at me never fails to help me take a breath and count my blessings in my moments of victory or doubt.
I want to be a content person in every area of my life so that when life tries to fully get me down, I will remember something wonderful in my life that I am perfectly okay with. For me, being content with my life means that I gradually learn to love my life for what it is and will be a little at a time each and every day, and that is why I choose to try and be content!