Purpose and Happiness

Happiness is a feeling we have when we are fulfilling our purpose. But what is our purpose? Is it making a lot of money? Winning a competition? The question to ask would be if any of these things make a change in ourselves and the world. One can make a lot of money or win at a competition, but that usually does not change anything about oneself or the world. ‘Change’ here means a substantial change in how I communicate with myself or the world.

Helping others automatically causes a change, so that counts as a purpose. Important is to understand in this context that saying ‘Yes’ also requires being able to say ‘No’. We often need to say ‘no’ to somethings so that we can say ‘Yes’ to something that is larger and important to us. Just try it out to see that saying ‘No’ once in a while helps you to easier say ‘Yes’ in situations that are really meaningful to you.

You should be fitting into the purpose as well, however. You can only help others if you take care of yourself. Loving others as yourself means you also have to be able to love yourself. This does not mean loving yourself in an egotistic or self-centered way, but acknowledging that you are also a human that needs to be cared for and who needs a comforting hug once in a way.

Whatever purpose you choose, it should align with your basic parameters, your needs, values, and aspirations. If you build a large building and you feel that it aligns with you when it is finished you will feel good about it and yourself. It will also be a representation of you in the world. When people look at it, they see a part of you in it. If the building does not align with how you see yourself, it will just have been another ‘job’. The key to fulfillment and happiness in the world is that there is more of you than less of you. This more of you should ripple through into seemingly small everyday tasks, like talking to a customer or finishing of a project. The more it contains you, the better.

Be a message to the world, and yourself. After all, life is communication, the exchange of meaningful messages, and by seeing your life as a message to the world you engage in the fundamental process of communication. Humans, and all organisms, achieve what they aspire to through communication. Whether you finish up a project or buy something at the local store you give and receive information. The richer you make this communication, both with the world and inside yourself, the more fulfilling the experience will be. But this also include the inner communication, the exchange you have with yourself.

So, why not see better communication with yourself and with the world as a purpose, from which many other forms of purpose can derive. Be a message to the world and yourself.


© 2021 Christian Jonathan Haverkampf. All Rights Reserved. For more articles, see www.askdrjonathan.com. To contact me, please see www.jonathanhaverkampf.com or www.jonathanhaverkampf.ie. I am also a guest on www.wordnets.com. These are just my thoughts. I may be wrong.

Christian Jonathan Haverkampf
Jonathan
purpose and happiness
purpose and happiness

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