Everyone wants to be happy -- whether you're a stressed out college student, young professional, or a middle-aged householder -- everyone desires to attain happiness. Living a life devoid of joy is simply not a life worth living. And, in the fast-paced grind of everyday American life, it's easy to slip into a mundane routine in which personal joy and happiness are extremely elusive.
What causes these stalled-out periods where time seems to freeze and nothing under the sun could quell our insatiable desire for happiness?
I contend that the mundane life is in itself a product of the life fixed on happiness alone.
Everyone and their sister has heard the famous John Lennon quote about happiness, and I'll quote it nevertheless:
"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life."
Lennon may very well be onto something here. However, it seems as if he would have his listeners believe that to pursue happiness alone is our end goal as humans, when in fact it is quite impossible to achieve happiness through pursuing happiness.
The "Paradox of Hedonism" shows us that when one is most hotly pursuing happiness, they become miserable wretches; when one forgets about happiness and is genuinely possessed with outer-directed interests, then one will achieve happiness.
Simply put -- Desire for something other than your own happiness will more often than not, beget true happiness.
Rather than happiness being the "key to life" as Lennon would have it, I maintain that happiness is a beautiful and precious by-product of our true interests and desires. Happiness is undoubtedly powerful, but it is not the key to life. The key to life is up in the air then! And it looks like we have "outer-directed interests" as a possibility for candidacy!
So what does it mean to possess "outer-directed interests" in everyday life?
This is truly so subjective that really anything goes! People change, and so will their interests, but it is important to cultivate these interests when they arise in you so that you can continually receive joy and experience meaning in one's subjective experience of the world.
For me in this instant, my interests include whitewater kayaking, learning to play guitar (2 weeks in), reading, writing, and maybe a few more here and there. My interests today are not the same as last month, let alone last year. Some will stick around forever, but they aren't all here to stay. That's okay. The important thing is to always stay outwardly focused and directed, never allowing yourself to become stagnant or insignificant.
My interests are always changing and I believe that's the most combative act one can commit against the mundane. The mundane will come, how you react will determine your happiness. If you become fixated on the pursuit of happiness alone, the odds are you may never achieve it.
