Isn’t that pursuing happiness? Your saying if you’re not happy than change your goals to something with happiness as a by product. Or, pursue happiness.
Pursuing happiness means you use happiness as a leading indicator (I think). You do things that you predict will make you happy. This is commonly preyed upon by advertising, sales, managers, bosses, etc.
I’m suggesting you use happiness as a trailing indicator instead.
Pursue other goals and happiness comes on its own. If you perceive yourself to be unhappy over a long period, that is a symptom and you should look for underlying causes then go fix those. You pursue fixing the causes, not the happiness.
See also: once a metric becomes the goal, it stops being useful.
To use a silly analogy: No amount of painkillers will fix a broken leg.
Or to share an example – I once got into gratitude journaling and mindfulness stuff. It kinda helped. You know what really helped? Quitting my job and getting a job I enjoyed. No mindfulness or gratitude journaling needed. Feeling like I need a gratitude journal was the symptom that something’s gotta change.
> Researchers have now found that people who pursue happiness often feel like they do not have enough time in the day, and this paradoxically makes them feel unhappy.
Pursuing happiness means you use happiness as a leading indicator (I think). You do things that you predict will make you happy. This is commonly preyed upon by advertising, sales, managers, bosses, etc.
I’m suggesting you use happiness as a trailing indicator instead.
Pursue other goals and happiness comes on its own. If you perceive yourself to be unhappy over a long period, that is a symptom and you should look for underlying causes then go fix those. You pursue fixing the causes, not the happiness.
See also: once a metric becomes the goal, it stops being useful.
To use a silly analogy: No amount of painkillers will fix a broken leg.
Or to share an example – I once got into gratitude journaling and mindfulness stuff. It kinda helped. You know what really helped? Quitting my job and getting a job I enjoyed. No mindfulness or gratitude journaling needed. Feeling like I need a gratitude journal was the symptom that something’s gotta change.