The pursuit of happiness is, according to the Founding Fathers at least, one of our fundamental rights.
And as soon as Madison Avenue evolved into the advertising and marketing monstrosity it is, they took the idea of happiness and turned it into a series of THINGS we cannot live without.
From hair dryers to washing machines to air fryers and dish washing pods - advertisers entice us to believe that without the thing - our life will be less worth living - because we’ll be unhappy. Unhappy washing dishes. Unhappy caring for fewer clothes and unhappy without the newest hair cut.
This is about unconscious consumption.
Unconscious consumption keeps us stuck in jobs we dislike or hate. It keeps us working in places that separate us from our families and people we love so that we can pay the interest rates on the things we bought that we didn’t need because we were sure they would help us feel happier.
The deeper lie is that these things rarely make us happy. All you have to do is watcha kid at Christmas - as they rip through toy after toy and gadget they begged for, only to find those toys and gadgets tossed in a corners, stepped on on lost within a few days.
The kids are looking for happiness too.
And they believe it’s stuff, because they’re watching us pine for stuff that we quickly discard or forget about in pursuit of the newest stuff or the stuff our neighbor has.
What’s this got to do with your career?
Instead of looking for stuff to make you happy - stuff you don’t need - like the newest fashion or car, start asking yourself what happiness actually means to you.
We tend to take jobs because they’ll take us, or someone told us it’s the right thing to do, or because it was a dream of someone we loved. Unhappy and unfulfilled in the job, we attempt to fill our lives (pursue happiness) in things. Things get bigger and so does the debt. And the happiness remains elusive.
We stay in the job so we can pay the bills and maybe someday “make enough” to really be happy.
THIS IS INSANITY.
Happiness is, as we know, an inside job. Unfortunately we’ve been led to believe that happiness comes from things, not moments or the people we surround ourselves with. And we keep going in the job that is wrong for us, making a profit at the expense of our dreams, thinking that someday we’ll be free.
Friends. Not gonna happen.
If you have a “plan” for your future that includes time with people you love and opportunities to meet new people and experience new things, why not build a job/career around those things, instead of trying to fit the plan in between your job?