People asking for a path

[warpus]

But how "happiness" isnt a goal? I think its an excellent one. When happiness is my goal then I am saying that I need to improve my life without restricting the path to that by some outward circumstances and I am an openminded person. If I say I want to be this or achieve that becouse secretely I think it will give me happines I am already narrowing my possibilities...

It's too vague to make a good action-oriented goal that you can strive towards. From my experience fuzzy goals aren't very good in terms of motivating you and allowing you to get stuff done.

"I want to be happy".. Okay, great.. But how do you want to achieve that? What sort of goals need to be achieved for you to be happy?

That's what I mean. "Happiness" by itself doesn't really get you anywhere.

 

[Borachio]

Maybe.

But let's say you've set yourself a goal; you're working towards it, and this working towards it makes you unhappy. Shouldn't you rethink your goal? Shouldn't you be guided by the fact that you're unhappy?

Doesn't this "boil down" to happiness being your ultimate goal? The goals you set for yourself are secondary.

 

[warpus]

Maybe.

But let's say you've set yourself a goal; you're working towards it, and this working towards it makes you unhappy. Shouldn't you rethink your goal? Shouldn't you be guided by the fact that you're unhappy?

Doesn't this "boil down" to happiness being your ultimate goal? The goals you set for yourself are secondary.

Happiness isn't a good goal IMO, because it's not well defined. To me goals have to be clear and specific, so that you know exactly what's required in terms of you getting off your butt and getting stuff done.

If you're working towards a goal and it's making you unhappy, I would say that's perfectly normal. Sometimes things have to get done.. things that annoy you. But they have to get done, so they become goals.

 

[Borachio]

Ho-kay. I've heard this "unhappiness is normal" line before. I don't agree with it. I think unhappiness is a sign either that what you're doing is "wrong" (for you or someone else), or your attitude towards it is wrong. Normally it's the former, imo.

Being happy, on the other hand, is a really good sign. Not infallible of course, because sometimes people can inadvertently sacrifice long term happiness to the short term.

Do what you enjoy and you'll do it better, often enough.

 

[warpus]

Ho-kay. I've heard this "unhappiness is normal" line before. I don't agree with it. I think unhappiness is a sign either that what you're doing is "wrong" (for you or someone else), or your attitude towards it is wrong. Normally it's the former, imo.

For the past 2 hours I've been sifting through SQL queries, trying to set something stupid up, last minute, because people are stupid. It isn't making me happy, but it has to get done. As soon as it's finished, I might be happy, because it's stupid, but for now I'm a bit grumpy, because people are stupid.

I guess what I'm trying to say is.. A lot of goals that need to be accomplished on your path to happiness won't be that fun to actually do.

That and happiness tends to be a dynamic thing, that's not clearly defined. From my experience people who set up vague and fuzzy goals like happiness don't really get much done. They're perfectionists, maybe. People who outline clear goals instead tend to get a lot more done.