10 Nov Imperfection, impermanence, and incompletion – the true triad of happiness!
It may well surprise some of you to read the heading to this post.
More often than not, we think of happiness coming from achievement and stability and success.
Which it can do. But …
These things, achievement and stability and success are rare, more rare than we realise, And they also bring with them aspects that aren’t always conducive to happiness.
Achievement can just create a need for more achievement; which can become a never ending cycle of dissatisfaction.
Stability can seem “nice”, for a while, but it can also be mundane and boring.
I could go on but the reality of life, for most of us anyway, is that happiness is complex. Happiness is messy.
Learning to love the mess allows for a new and different type of happiness that can, in fact, be even more genuine and authentic and in some ways, more resilient.
You know those daily frustrations we all experience – like tech glitches and traffic delays and other people letting us down? Learn to love them! Search for the beauty in that which seems bloody irritating.
This form of acceptance doesn’t mean lowering our standards or giving in to anyone or anything. But it can mean less disappointment coming from regular inevitabilities.
If we can find happiness in that which is imperfect, including ourselves, that which is impermanent, which is pretty much everything, and that which is incomplete, like life, then we can find happiness … well, anywhere!