Most people seek out human ideas of happiness, and that usually involves happiness on their own terms. When we grow up, at some point, we’re asked, through our circumstances or our relationships, to relinquish human formulas for happiness. We’re even brought to question the idea of seeking happiness as a goal in its own right.

It’s only when I surrender my own ideas of what I think will make me happy that I can, in some distant way, see what stands between me and my happiness. I can then begin to seek that which is more enduring: peace, contentment, and fulfillment. These are less intoxicating, less easily taken away, not subject to ups and downs like happiness is. They’re often less exciting.

Seeking to be happy is more like a recipe, a formula that requires certain human ingredients that are guaranteed to produce a certain brew. But when the brew wears off, so does the happiness. And we’re left with the hangover of disillusionment.

Happiness is often tied to externals. Peace, contentment and fulfillment are usually the results of an inside job. One of the great conclusions of human experience is that we have little control over the external world. We have more choice over what transpires inside of us, but even there, our control is limited. Control ends up a poor strategy for attaining a sense of wellbeing.

What we do have, almost always, is choice. Choice over what happens on the outside may be limited. But it’s always unlimited on the inside. We’re always free to determine our responses to outside circumstances. That gives us complete freedom. The problem with human notions of happiness are that they almost always define happiness – and the formulas through which it’s acquired – by insisting that externals operate on our own terms. Since we have little control over other people and circumstances, we end up as hostages to everyone and everything else, and prisoners to the world.

It’s only when I let go of my old ideas – my own ideas – of happiness that I can be truly and deeply content, at peace, and fulfilled.

© 2022 by Michael C. Just

Mike’s novel, The Dirt: The Journey of a Mystic Cowboy, is available in softcover or eBook formats through Amazon.

You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23

Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002

Four of his short stories have recently been published online:

Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)

The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW

I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October

Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within