We live in the entertainment economy.
We’re so immersed in it that we’re like fish who don’t realize they’re swimming in water.
We’re in the midst of the entertainment awards season. And some people are highly interested in the outcome of a particular Big Game this upcoming Sunday. Admittedly, I am usually one of those taking in the game, commercials, and halftime show. Pro football is my sports distraction of choice.
I invite you to breathe the fresh air of a life lived more thoughtfully and fully alive. Think of this message as CPR for the soul.
Be sure to invest yourself in the matters of life that matter the most.
Go more deeply into the discovery of knowing who you are, how you were designed, and the difference your life can make in the world of the “happily distracted” who are filled but unfulfilled.
Distractions abound in an ADHD-paced schedule and life. Distractions prevent us from getting to clarity and building lives of maturity, depth, and greater contribution.
When distractions become our way of life, the way of our life is passing us by.
How many times have you said, “I just want to be happy”? Perhaps you’ve said it about your children, too.
To be happy is certainly a worthy emotional state.
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Dare I ask …
- Is happiness the true gold standard for the ideal emotional state?
- Can we always be happy?
- Are we entitled to happiness?
Yes, I believe in the book title from the Minirth Meier New Life Clinic, Happiness is a Choice. I’m happy to be happy!
Perhaps my age is showing with my questions (and answer). Hopefully, I’m not a cynic, but a keen observer of the human condition. The “pursuit of happiness” as we understand and apply it in the 21st Century may actually not be in our long-term best interest.
Too often the pursuit of happiness is the unhealthy avoidance of reality.
Denial and distraction are a dangerous one-two combination that takes us down an unhealthy path of avoidance.
Happiness, for all its good as it is in use today, is a fleeting, temporary, or surface emotion. Happiness is circumstantial and has the effect of drug tolerance. What it takes to makes us happy tends to get ramped up over time. We need more and bigger to satisfy our happiness quotient.
The more enduring emotions are love, joy, and peace because they are attitudes of choice—not circumstances. The matter becomes not what can I do to be happy, but can I be at peace regardless of my circumstances.
Viktor Frankl in his book Man’s Search For Meaning profoundly observed that those who survived in Nazi prison camps had a compelling reason and will to live. In essence, they made peace with their circumstances and captors. They lived until another day because they had a purpose, a reason for being.
Pursuing your purpose (instead of happiness) opens the back door to the prosperous and joyful life of being more at peace. Get off the “happy drug” of distractions.
Stop paying the high price of avoiding being the true you.
Frankly, we need you to be more of you. You’re the only one who can be you.