5 Reasons Letting Go Of Everything That Isn't Your Ultimate Goal Is The Only Way To Be Happy

The truth is that people alone cannot be happy. Happiness requires much more. It requires thoughts. It requires actions. It requires living. You, by yourself, cannot be happy unless you add something to the mix.

People, from the beginning of time, have been attaching themselves to different areas of life in hopes of adding value to themselves, to their own lives.

When you divvy up and categorize all the different things that exist in life, all the things that we may wish to associate ourselves with, you may come to notice that the only things worth tying yourself to are goals.

Many would answer differently, of course. Most would say people, or careers, or happiness itself. When you think about it, really think about it, none of those things matter to us in themselves.

The only way they matter to us is how they influence us. We may appreciate them in theory, but in the end we appreciate them for what they add to our lives. Unfortunately, those things in themselves won’t have you dying happy.

The only things worth anything at all are the goals you create for yourself and the journey you take to achieve them.

1. Goals are one of the few things in life that only we ourselves can change – really the one thing we have full control over.

The world is a fickle place. Our minds can be fickle just the same. Ideas, on the other hand, are eternal. They are alive so long as there are minds to think and understand them. Goals are really nothing more than ideas.

Of course, the difference between good ideas and bad ideas – just with good goals versus poor goals – is that good ideas have a possibility of coming to life. Goals are only good goals if you have or may possibly one day have the means of attaining them.

No matter what happens outside of us, our goals stay put. They aren’t mutable by others because they are our goals, our ideas. The only person who can alter a goal is the person holding it.

We may choose, as many do, to abandon goals or tweak them along our journey. That is fine – that’s how goals survive as breathing, living things, constantly adapting to real life events and surroundings.

The entire world may change, but if you decide that you have a great goal then it needn’t change along with everything and everyone else.

2. People will come and go, regardless of what you do.

Relying on them is basically setting yourself up for disappointment and grief. This isn’t to say that having people in your life who love and support you isn’t a great thing, because it is – crucial to our happiness even.

Nonetheless, people will disappoint you from time to time; they will hurt you even. It’s the price we pay for bringing two or more egos together and locking them up in a small room – tension happens. People will lie to you, steal from you, cheat you and walk all over you.

Not everyone, mind you, but enough. This is why you must always be wary of who you allow into your life. Allowing the wrong people can be catastrophic.

While you will surely need to rely on others at one point of your life or another, don’t make it a habit. Or at the very least, understand that when it comes to people, there is almost always a price to pay.

Even if they were good to you their entire lives, one day they will die. If they outlive you then you will hurt. If the person was important enough to you then the only thing that may save you are your goals.

3. Objects have no intrinsic value in themselves and therefore, in the end, have no value whatsoever.

You can own all the toys and gadgets you want, it won’t guarantee your happiness. Hell, it may make it even more elusive. The more human beings give physical objects importance, the more they lose sight of what is actually important.

In reality, only life itself and ideas have any value – everything else is subjective, given a price tag dependent on market demand. Houses, cars, dresses, suits, watches, yachts, planes, basically anything that you can purchase has no intrinsic value. The only value objects have is as a means to a greater end.

If that end is the object itself then it only stands to reason that we’ll have a difficult time finding satisfaction. Money is only as valuable as we say it is.

4. A life filled with goals, big or small, is a life constantly in motion.

To remain in motion is to live. Once you stop moving, you are literally dead. Goals are beautiful things because they give us a purpose for being. They give us a reason to live our lives, to get out of bed every day, and to continue pushing forward.

Goals are changes, and without change, the universe would be a cold and isolated place where time stands still. Goals allow us to use what little time we do have to impact the rest of the world and its inhabitants.

They allow us to do good, to love and to experience. Your life is an array of memories – that’s all it is, if you really think about it.

Goals allow us to fill our minds with exciting, entertaining and emotional memories – memories that will stick with us until we are no longer capable of remembering. If you stop moving then you stop creating those precious memories – arguably the most valuable of memories.

5. If you live from one goal to the next, you’ll never see death coming.

And that’s a very good thing. Of course, death isn’t a thing, but rather a lack of a thing. A lack of life. Regardless, having too much time to notice and think about how death is creeping up on you is mentally damning. It can be frightening even.

Once you are no longer alive, you stop existing. Your religion may say this or that, but you (as you know you) disappears forever the moment that life leaves your body.

Understanding this may lead to a premature death on its own. Pondering over death as a concept I do believe is beneficial, yet pondering over the moment you die isn’t. It will come when it comes and if you’re lucky, you won’t even see it coming.

Keep living, keep creating and accomplishing goals and you’ll pass away doing exactly what it is that you love.

Photo Courtesy: Tumblr

For More Of His Thoughts And Ramblings, Follow Paul Hudson On Twitter And Facebook.