Your own unique

Happiness

 Define happiness!  Is it a new car? Is it fame, wealth, sex, peace of mind? Is it having fun? Maybe it’s getting your boss off of your back. Maybe it’s having a mistress to take your mind off of your miserable marriage. Maybe it’s getting that promotion and the recognition that comes with it. Ya think?

To quote the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes: they’re “All Vanities”.

Vanity is defined by Webster’s dictionary as:

1. The quality or condition      of being vain.
2. Excessive pride in one’s      appearance orAccomplishments
3. Conceit. See Synonyms at      conceit.

You see King Solomon (the probable writer of the Hebrew Old Testament book Ecclesiastes) had wealth and fame beyond yours or my imagination.  In his book he talks about what he did to try to find meaning in the physical life. He writes about his mansions, money, concubines (mistresses/sex partners) achievements and referred to them all as “Vanities“. He believed that his only real purpose for being on this earth was to have a close relationship with God.

I agree, but feel Solomon’s summary was incomplete. I believe that God put us here with a unique and individual purpose. I have come to believe that we are here to experience happiness and to become.  (Become what)?  To become what only we can be.

Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius at something”. “Is it fair to judge a fish by his ability to climb a tree, he’ll go on thru life thinking he’s a failure”.

So what are we here for? To find that unique person that you were meant to be and become it. What is that perfect complete person?  It’s the person you’ve become once you’ve found a way to combine your burning passion, special talent and needs. What then is happiness? It’s ANYTHING you DO that takes you in the direction of that goal. Just knowing who that potential person is will bring you happiness.

Matthew Kelly calls it the “best version of you“.

This life is oh so short. Most of us will live less than 100 years. From the day we’re born, we start our journey towards death. We wander aimlessly thru life worrying about needs. So we get meaningless jobs that pay us money. Life amounts to a simple equation for most of us:

Life = Time/work x (Money – expenses)

Your life is simple. Your focus is on survival. You convert time into money and give it to others so you can have a roof over your head, food in the fridge and strings for your guitar. (Or perhaps wheels on your car etc….)

Then you wake up one day in intensive care and wonder where your life went. But every breath you take of every second of every day is a chance to start your life over.

I subscribe to a different belief structure:

1. Discover what your God given talent is. (Your inner voice) We all have one. Someone in your life has told you that you are great at something.  It’s something you do that makes you lose track of the time.

2. Review your needs. Rent/mortgage food etc……

3. List the opportunities in that field and find a way to combine them all so you can work in a field you love and get paid for it.

Stevie Ray Vaughan, the legendary blues guitarist, was working at a burger stand. One night he was told to clean the grease vats. He was standing on top of a huge 50 gallon barrel of grease (from the deep fat fryers) when the lid broke and Stevie fell into the barrel of grease up to his armpits. He said: “This is enough of this shit I’m gonna play guitar for a living”.  Sure, Stevie Ray went without for a long time, yet eventually became known as one of the world’s greatest Blues masters.

If you become the person God wants you to become. You are then doing God’s will. And God didn’t design everyone to be missionaries or preachers or nuns or elders. But he did give you a special blessing.  My biggest fear in Life is to be standing at the Pearly Gates and have to answer why I neglected the special endowments God blessed me with.  I will be quick to plead ignorance then say I tried.

Find out who you were meant to become. Work on becoming that person. Then know happiness.