One could say that the purpose of life is to be happy. But in a great irony, doing the easy thing and doing things that are fun all the time will not make you happy in the long run. People who seek short-term pleasures to make them happy will always be looking for greater pleasures, and in the end, feel shallow and empty.
It turns out ceaseless leisure and short-term pleasures do not, in themselves, equate to long-term fulfillment and purpose and the deep sense of happiness that comes with them.
“Happiness does not come from doing the easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.” – Theodore Isaac Rubin
Pleasure or purpose? Happiness or meaning?
What we want is to matter. The struggle makes it worthwhile and matter.
Great post as always, Larry. I think that something I’ve always strived for is to be so unassuming as to be easily forgotten, but to be so consequential as to be unforgettable. It’s a hard balance to find, and not easily achieved, but it helps me find purpose in what I do without making doing things my purpose.
Thanks for helping us think daily – Have a Great New England Spring Day! 🙂
Hedonic consumption vs the hard work of leaving the world better than you found it? Looking back at this decision from 10 years in the future, which path would I take?
I love this so much. Two years ago I chose to test out both sides of the fence, and I started to search out the easy path to see what was all about the rage… and I lost myself and became an incredibly depressed, angry version of myself that I had never seen before. Fast forward two years and I pulled myself out of the darkness, and found the path that isn’t easy once again as well as regained my incredible sense of purpose and joy that I had previously had, but this time with more conviction around why it mattered. This truly matters.