Productivity culture – the shared feeling that we all need to be achieving something at all times – makes it challenging to distinguish feelings of happiness and love from self-improvement. What we tend to forget, though, is that pride and joy are two separate feelings, and they should remain separate for this very reason. 

How I Define My Own Happiness

When I graduated from college, I couldn’t help but to consider that, although I did indeed accomplish something, I was only happy because of that singular fact – I did something. It’s not wrong to feel satisfied when we achieve our goals. However, finding happiness through achievement becomes an issue when we only seek goal-oriented moments. Despite popular belief, other joy sources can make us just as happy.

The dictionary defines the word happy as feeling or showing pleasure or contentment. In that case, I feel really happy when I am watching a new episode of my favorite show. I feel happy when my group of friends and I meet at one of our homes and talk for hours. I feel happy when, on the rare occasion that our work schedules don’t conflict, my parents and I can share a meal.

Recently, I have learned to distinguish pride from happiness. I feel proud of myself for accomplishing my goals, but I feel happy when I am participating in even the most mundane tasks. Doing this has allowed me to free myself from the need to constantly better myself in the hopes that I will achieve happiness. I am almost always happy, but it took a little bit of grounding to realize it. 

#royalwomeninspire

Mia Hollie

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