I just finished watching the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” with Will Smith playing Chris Gardner, a man who was at the lowest low yet followed his heart and ended up on top of the world.
I got really inspired after watching the movie so I thought i’d share with you a little bit about my personal pursuit of happiness.
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary Happiness is:
Main Entry: hap·pi·ness
Pronunciation: \ˈha-pē-nəs\
Function: noun
Date: 15th century
1 obsolete : good fortune : prosperity
2 a : a state of well-being and contentment : joy b : a pleasurable or satisfying experience
3 : felicity, aptness
So according to the dictionary, happiness can be obsolete, good fortune, and prosperity. I personally believe it’s ALL of them + health, friendships, relationships, an active lifestyle, time for reflection, meditation and gratitude.
It’s impossible to define happiness.
Happiness can’t truly be defined in my opinion because it’s something that is constantly changing for each individual person. Last year what made me happy is different than what makes me happy this year. When I first started college almost 4 years ago, the things that made me happy were: Partying, partying, excessive drinking, skipping classes and being away from home and did I mention partying?
photo credit: See-ming Lee 李思明 SML
Now, the things that make me happy are: personal development, working out, eating healthy, hanging out with friends, reading, inspiring others, learning new things, experiencing new things, meeting young attractive interesting girls, playing and watching sports, being at the beach, and the list goes on.
However, my list doesn’t include partying nearly as much as it did merely 4 years ago. In fact, some weekends I end up not partying at all and staying in for the night to read or do work to get me ahead(nerd alert). Life really has challenged me over the past 4 years and I absolutely am in love with the struggle/triumphs.
I’ve learned so much on my “pursuit of happiness” that I am actually happy with myself. I work out daily doing P90X With Chris, eat healthy and have been getting more clients doing what I LOVE (helping offline businesses make money using the Internet). I am planning on moving to Southern California in September after I graduate from Buffalo State and feel that that area is a good move for me at this point in my life. The only thing I currently don’t have right now is an awesome relationship with a girl who challenges me to be more each and every day, both in my personal life and business life. However, I’m not worried about that because there are so many women on this planet that I know there are more out there who fit me perfectly. (I’m picky, very, very picky) Could you be that woman? 
(I hope San Diego is ready for me haha)
So what really constitutes happiness?
When you wake up in the morning do you dread getting out of bed or do you spring up like someone just told you that you won the lottery? I personally struggle getting up in the morning some day’s because Buffalo weather isn’t 60-80 degrees and sunny each day with a beach nearby(that’s my ideal morning). However for the majority of the mornings I wake up feeling ready to take on the day, to do my workout, do my homework, go to classes, and get some work done to improve myself in some way or another.
Throughout the day I try to do things that make ME happy. Sometimes it’s cracking jokes to people working at the restaurants or stores I go to, or in classes. Other times it’s doing something nice for someone else. Sometimes it happens to be picking something up for someone that dropped something(this happened like 5 times at Cocoa Beach, I caught 2 frisbee’s, a football and caught some little girls bucket before it swept out into the ocean. I think it was part of my path for the day) things like this make me happy. Putting out POSITIVE vibes and truly making a difference in someone’s life, no matter how small it is.
photo credit: photomequickbooth
After watching this movie, it really made me think about the actual PURSUIT that Happiness takes us on. It’s not a final destination but more about the actual journey that we take every single day. It’s all about finding one thing that you can do everyday that will put a smile on your face and make you feel all mushy and good inside that truly determines the success of a day. I heard a great quote in an audio interview I heard from David DeAngelo’s “Interviews with Dating Guru’s” program. The quote was:
“At the end of your life when you are sitting on your death bed, you want to be able to say….I was happy most of the time. That truly defines happiness”
I’d love to hear your comments about what you think about happiness. What makes you happy? What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear them below.
