I haven’t been taking time to write for a long time. I would say that it has been almost half a year since I wrote a length post about a topic. During this period, I have been busy writing my book.
I have posted on this blog from time to time. However, most of them are just ramblings – writings which just come out directly from my heart. Most are short ones: updates about my life and the thoughts that run around my head on a consistent basis.
This would be a lengthier post because I feel the bliss of knowing that my book is finally done.
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Writing the book is a real learning process. It is an extremely valuable lesson in myself, what I love doing and how I come to look at my future. It is a very humbling process to know how tedious it is to write a book, however easy it is to read it.
I realize something valuable the past couple of days upon completion of my book. It dawn upon me that the end result of something isn’t truly important. In doing something, what’s most important isn’t the end result. Although we tend to work towards an end result, the result isn’t that important.
Trust me, it isn’t.
It took me almost a year to write, edit and learn about publishing books to get this book ready.
Rewind to a year back, knowing that I would be an author would be something that blow my mind away.
But now, it just seems something normal. I am not that excited anymore about it. Actually, I felt a bit down a few days ago because I didn’t understand why the excitement and motivation that I had a couple of months ago just seem to go away.
I realize that I have been caught up in this illusion: The Illusion of Happiness.
All of us get caught up in it from time to time.
The Illusion of Happiness is the belief that something in the future would make us feel better. It is the belief that when we have something or reached a certain situation; and then we will be happy.
We may believe that when we:
- Buy that material item
- Get that special someone
- Reach a certain career goal
- Gain the admiration of other people
- Achieve our dreams
and then, we will be happy.
But it never does.
Things in the future never seem to make us happy. Never had, never will.
Even if you were to be happy from the achievement of something, it seems like the happiness is fleeting. You feel happy for a while. The next thing you know, you are looking for something else to make you ‘happy’.
This realization dawn upon me the importance of enjoying totally the steps towards something. It is the steps that matters, not the destination. Most of the time the destination seem to instead disappoint us.
I have learned to focus less on the future. I do make plans and such. But I am very flexible towards them. I also make sure that I do not invest my happiness in the future.
If I can’t be happy today, I won’t be happy tomorrow.
I have learned to be free from situations and circumstances. Happiness needs no reason. It has nothing to do with the past or the future.
