Category: Happiness and Joy

Sitting around, knowing you’re entitled to the pursuit of happiness isn’t going to do much for you.

But understand that there is a real happiness that comes from pursuit.

When your eyes and mind are fixed on a goal and you’re problem solving, critically thinking, collaborating, exploring, trial-and-error-ing, iterating, building, growing…

You unlock a type of whole being happiness… one that isn’t in vain like a temporary pleasure… but one that activates almost every part of you—mind, body, spirit—and renews itself again and again and again…

Just don’t get so caught up in pursuit that you never give yourself any time to feel the happiness that’s present at each step along the way.

I went to, what I estimated to be, a multi-million dollar nighttime light display event at my local zoo today.

…And what did the other person, child, and I spend the sweeping majority of our time interacting with the most?

…A puddle of water, a light up floor, and a swing.

Sure, the multi-million dollar event itself made for an incredible experience, offered awesome scenery, and gave all of us plenty to talk about.

…But, don’t think that the multi-million dollar budget was (or ever is) necessary for fun and entertainment.

A little imagination, or maybe more appropriately said—zoo-magination—is (and always will be) all that’s ever truly necessary.

I saw a kid today, maybe 10 years old, sliding down high school bleacher gym stairs, on his butt (hear: thump, thump, thump…), with his martial arts uniform wide open exposing his chest and tummy, laughing hysterically, giving zero cares to any of the other hundred or so people in the gym, concluding planted on the gym floor, laying on his back, giggling like it was the best thing he had done in his entire life.

…I hope one day I can unlearn my way back to a place where I can un-self-consciously do things like that at such a high level.

It’s amazing how far away from presence, joy, and healthy carelessness we’re taught to be—in the form of “Grow up” “Be cool” “Fit in” “Don’t act like such a child” “Don’t be so immature” “Don’t be such a loser…” When in reality… it’s the younger version of ourselves that—in so many ways—had it right all the way from the start.

Sitting at dinner the other night with some associates, we overheard a group of young teenagers making fart noises and laughing.

Most of the people around (myself included) rolled their eyes and gave that “grow up” kind of look.

One, however, looked at them, slowly took on a face of awe and said, “Man, I miss the days when I could just laugh at fart noises.”

And it was amazing to see how quickly those faces of disapproval melted away.

What a beautiful thing it is, indeed, to be so free of intruding thoughts, overbearing feelings of stress, and learned “adult” behaviors that you’re able to laugh at something so pure and rudimentary.

Maybe the eyes rolled should be turned the other way around.

Maybe instead of growing up, we should be looking for ways we can grow “down.”

Maybe being able to laugh at fart noises is illustrative of an understanding much deeper that many of us modernized, indoctrinated type folks are willing to admit or explore…

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P.s. For those who look for it every Sunday, I wasn’t able to get the MoveMe Weekly email done for today. I’ll finish it and get it sent out tomorrow.

On my drive to work this morning, I pissed a guy off very much.

While crossing the street in the middle of traffic, he started yelling and swearing at me for driving too… slow… because I didn’t drive past him fast enough which made him slow down his stride and (god forbid) wait an extra few moments before he could finish his jaywalk.

Looking in my rear view mirror, he didn’t continue in any kind of hurry either… just continued walking across the street, mumbling to himself, with anger oozing from his mannerisms.

The experience as a whole couldn’t have cost the guy anything more than 10 seconds. And yet, probably cost him upwards of at least 10 minutes from his exacerbated response… maybe even hours—who knows. And here I am, furthermore, thinking about it and writing about it hours and hours later.

Coincidentally, as the universe would have it, I discovered and uploaded a quote to MoveMe Quotes today that said, “Patience is not passive, it is concentrated strength.” And this little experience does a great job exemplifying why.

Ten seconds of patience—concentrated strength—could have given him and me (and anyone else involved) an exponential return in time saved from anger/ frustration/ and irritation… time that could be used instead for joy/ presence/ creative thinking/ etc.

And to those who take the time to develop that concentrated strength and actively flex those patience muscles in their every day lives—thank you. Not only is the ROI phenomenal for you, but it is for all of us. Your strength gives us more time and space to develop ours—and for that I am (we are) grateful.

A person with a lot of money, a person with a medium amount of money, and a person with a little money all laugh hysterically at a joke that’s told… is one person’s laughter more real than the others?

…I’d argue no. Laughter is laughter is laughter.

An extremely attractive person, a medium attractive person, and a not-so-attractive person all dance joyfully and uncaringly on a dance floor… is one person’s joy more real than the others?

…I’d argue no. Joy is joy is joy.

A person with a million followers, a person with 10K followers, and a person with 1 follower all feel butterflies when they see the one they love… is one person’s love more real than the others?

…I’d argue no. Love is love is love.

Once you realize what you’re really after are emotional experiences, and not so much material purchases or vanity metrics… suddenly the game you’ve been playing changes.

All of a sudden, you can change your strategy from adding zeros to your bank account to surrounding yourself with people who make you laugh hysterically; from making yourself look more attractive to making yourself look for more dancing opportunities; from getting more followers to like you to spending more time fully immersed with the one(s) you love.

Don’t get it twisted.

What you’ve been looking for has been available to you this whole time.

…We’ve simply been led to believe otherwise because it’s good for somebody else’s business.