Life as I see it

Yesterday night, I lay in my bed, looking out into the night and ask myself. What is it that I want in my life? What is it that everyone wants in their life? Why is that the people do everything they do – from waking up to going to sleep, from taking up a job to switching jobs to retiring, to falling in love to dumping his/her girlfriend/boyfriend, from earning money by working hard to wasting it all on an expensive new gadget, from joining for yoga to not bothering to attend the classes, the list is endless…. But why do people do all this? Because people want to be happy. They try to do things they think will make them happy. Sometimes it’s buying new gadgets. Sometimes it’s flirting with a girl. Sometimes it’s gossiping about someone else. Sometimes, it’s a higher job with a higher salary. But, eventually, does this all make a man happy? I don’t think so. My dad used to tell me, “The basic needs of a man are food, shelter and clothing. Once these three things are there, everything else is luxury.” I used to think that he was trying to stop me from spending money. But now that I have grown up and come to think of it, I understand that he was right. Socrates said, “the fewer our needs, the nearer we resemble gods.” People usually set targets for happiness. “I’ll be happy if I buy the latest mobile phone.” Or “I’ll be happy if I get a higher paying job” but is this really happiness? They are just trying to substitute real happiness for something else. As we buy the latest mobile phone, another one replaces the latest spot. As we get higher salary, our aim becomes even higher. This makes us still unhappy and we are again at square one. As Paulo Coelho said, “Everyone must ask himself, why am I unhappy? That helps us to find out what makes us happy. If what makes us happy is different from what we have now, then we must either change once and for all or stay as we are, feeling even more unhappy.” But the question remains, how many are bold enough to come out from their comfort zone to search for the happiness that they are not sure of to find? Will you?