Happiness makes life worth living. In the absence of happiness, life is a zombie existence.
Every human being strives for happiness. This desire to be happy, directs our behavior.
For some, that behavior favors short-term happiness at the expense of long-term happiness (immediate gratification). For these individuals, they pursue activities that create immediate happiness. Unfortunately, short-term happiness is fleeting.
For others, they pursue activities that produce long-term happiness. The pursuit of long-term happiness, however, requires sacrifices most are unwilling to make (delayed gratification). For those individuals who are willing to make sacrifices today, happiness, when it eventually comes, lasts for many years, perhaps even a lifetime.
So, there is a war waging within each of us pitting the desire for immediate happiness today, against the sacrifice-dependent desire for long-term happiness tomorrow.
Those who have created a script of their ideal, future life use that vision to create and pursue goals that will help them realize the dreams that produce their ideal, future life.
The pursuit of goals, however, comes at a cost – sacrificing today’s time and money that could otherwise be used to create immediate happiness.
Having a clear vision of where you want to end up in life, gives you superpowers. Those with a clear vision of their future life, are able to marshall the willpower and internal resources to overpower the desire for short-term happiness as you pursue activities that will pay dividends down the road which produce long-term happiness.
It’s a choice each individual makes – short-term happiness (immediate gratification) vs. long-term happiness (delayed gratification).
About Thomas C. Corley
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