Osho says that misery is nothing but distance from truth.
Think about the proximity of truth in some of the best/worst relationships you’ve ever known. The relationships riddled with lies were probably the most miserable. And I’m not even just talking about lies with your partner… I’m including lies you’ve told yourself… about who you are, what you want, and how you’re going to show up in the relationship to make it work. And I’m sure the inverse is true as well. Lies move pain (misery) into the future—truth moves pain (misery) into the past.
Think, too, about some of the best/worst job or career paths you’ve ever pursued. The work that was most aligned with the truth of your personality/spirit, was the work you undoubtedly most enjoyed. And the work that felt like a direct contradiction I’m sure caused the most misery. But, again, we can’t be true to our work until we’re true to ourselves. We need to do personality tests, build skills, join clubs, follow our innate curiosities, experiment/side-hustle, and, of course, do inner work to reveal our truth which we can then align with work.
And even just think about some of the best/worse moments in your life… when you were crossing items off your bucket list—doing things that truly fulfill you. Or when you were forced to do something you really didn’t want to do or hated every second of… that was so against your inner truth…
Once you understand this, moving towards truth can become a mantra of sorts that’ll guide you in just about every dimension in life. Once you uncover, of course, what your truth is.