Becoming happy

In this post I want to write about a few thoughts about life in general but also about my situation in particular.

What is the meaning of life?

A quite general answer to this question I had in high school was “becoming happy”. This is generic, as this can cover a lot of other often-mentioned meanings like “making the world a better place”, “helping others” and so on.

Talking about it: helping others is always some kind of helping yourself (as you are becoming happy from doing so) and therefor “true altruism” could not exist (as “doing something without a benefit for oneself” still has the benefit of becoming happy for people who practice this). Actually, it is not of any meaning if this is altruism or not, what is important is that it feels good. But that is not quite the point here.

I have been told and somehow got the feeling that there is a rule of “more money = more happiness”, which is obviously untrue. But still, people behave as if the only way to become happy in their life is ‘becoming rich’. Nobody speaks it out in this clear way, but still, this thought is subtly involved in the society.

Maybe the origin of this is the desire for power. As money is associated with power and therefor is a requirement for those who want to “be king” or strive for power to be happy.

In movies and art, this could be interpreted as a placeholder for “whatever you’d like to do” as being rich is also associated with endless options and freedom. This is also a deep-seated opinion in society (at least that’s what I feel like) Thinking about wealthy people, this is barely true. Often there is quite a big part of managing wealth and making sure you stay wealthy. Wealth also brings new fears and dependencies (a house for example stops you from moving around freely), which brings me to the conclusion that ‘becoming rich’ is not one of my primary life goals.

But what is then?

Of course, this is not universal in everyone’s life. It is not even quite the end of my line of thought for myself. Things might change. I won’t know what makes my future-me happy, so I have to extrapolate from the things which make me happy now and hope, that I won’t regret anything in the retrospective.

Currently, I am happy. For a very long time, I always felt like there is something I am waiting for. I waited to finish high school. Then I waited to finish my bachelor’s degree. Then I waited for my master’s degree. Now I am trying the next scientific grade, but something changed. I am no longer waiting for my life to become cool “once I am finished”.

This change of thought might come with new experiences and views I found to be good, but it could also just be a part of growing up and realizing that I am a few years older now and don’t need to wait anymore. Another explanation would be that the master’s degree was some kind of inner finish line and I don’t have to wait anymore.

Thinking about the Future

A new thought I found quite fitting is that I probably won’t become a lot happier than I am now in the future. This might sound quite sad and like a bad prospect, but it isn’t meant that way. I have a good living, good friends, a relationship that enriches my life, a lot of fun playing the trombone, an interesting working place, a good old dog, good education and not many open wishes. Even at my very young age, I feel very happy and somehow got a feeling of completeness. My goal for the future is mainly to maintain this state. This does not mean that everything should stay as it is now. Quite the contrary, things must change to still give the same feeling of happiness and completeness. I also need new challenges for the future and can’t spend a day doing nothing. But just like I did not feel bored for years, I don’t think that my life will get boring someday.