Saturday, June 14, 2008

Question

I haven't posted in this blog in forever. I realize this. That's probably not going to change.

I've been going through a lot of stuff since my last post, and frankly, I don't really want to share it with the whole world. There have been good things, I bought a car and moved, but the bad stuff has been, well, bad.

One thing I do want some feedback on though is the following questions that I'm pondering:

Where is happiness found? Is it really living paycheck to paycheck to buy nice clothes and go out to bars and clubs to show them off? Paying out money on drinks to forget about what you do during the day and be free to do whatever you want at night? Is it more important to do what everyone else does so that you fit in, or to blaze your own trail doing what you think is right? Is there some middle ground that actually works, or once you compromise your principles have you lost everything?

Everyone else seems so happy with themselves and their lives. I'm always striving for more, pushing myself and those around me. I can't stop, it's just who I am, but people seem to reject me for it.

I don't understand why I seem to see things so differently from everyone else. Am I really that different or have I just separated myself?

I've tried to change who I am. I've tried to be like everyone else, but it just makes me miserable. Does anyone have any answers?

3 comments:

Erin said...

Ok here are some words of genius for you...

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
- Frederick Keonig

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
- Abraham Lincoln

In other words, if you are so concerned about "what is happy?" or "how can i be happy?" - you are MISSING IT! you just simply enjoy what you have - a good job, a family who loves you, a nice steady income, a house over your head, a new car... those are all great things. once you're happy by yourself, you'll be happy with yourself. and that's when you can finally be happy with someone else :)

Anonymous said...

Focus your energy on what you want even if it's only in your mind, and let reality catch up.
It's okay to be different. I like different, it's what makes life fun.
Nice to see you're back ;-)

~christophany~ said...

Yeah, my dad always says "you have to be able to marry anyone before someone will want to marry you".

I think what I do is try too hard. I try to focus on things I think other people like so that they will like me, rather than just focusing on what I enjoy and makes me happy and surrounding myself with people who get joy from the same activities. Then I'm not trying to fit a square peg in a circular hole when I try to get people together to do things.

I've read a lot of stuff that talks about having a clear vision of what you want and keeping your focus on it. Not only is it talked about in "The Science of Getting Rich", but Steve Pavlina discusses it a lot on his blog (http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/).

I think I just misinterpreted what Dale Carnegie meant in "How to Win Friends and Influence People" when he said that the best way to get people interested in your life is to take an interest in theirs. It's not about changing what you are interested in in order to fit in, but rather listening to what people like and sharing their passion and joy by enjoying the connection you share in that feeling of being passionate about something.