www.fastcompany.com: Just a few months ago, I was having a conversation with a friend who was considering trying her hand at full-time freelancing. Over coffee, I ran through all of my standard advice, tips, and encouragement, and then offered her the floor–expecting her to jump right in with the routine questions I’ve grown so used to answering.
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I struggle a lot with finding contentment, especially in the context of the School of Drama. During class assignments, I look about and see such radically different, and beautiful, creations, that I believe are above and beyond anything I could accomplish. As the author states, "comparison is the thief of joy." Instead of finding pride in my own work, I compare it to others, seeing only flaws on my own desk. I feel that, as a society, we are raised in constant competition. Who has the best GPA? Who is going to the best school? Who makes the most money? Our social lives are often built on comparison. Dating websites even compare various identity traits to measure your compatibility! Just once, I wish we could all step back and see the mess this has wrought in civilization, and decide in turn to live more organically and freely. If we were all allowed to just be and enjoy the moments as they come, I beleive we as a species would be happier.
Am I happy? I have never thought about asking myself that about much of anything. I mean, I know that life has its ups and downs but I never really considered my individual happiness as a main, daily factor in my life. The article hits onto some really good points about what makes a person happy and what can destroy that happiness. I admit, I too get into the habit of thinking that someones job is better than mine or that the job I have been tasked with means that I may not be looked at as a valuable member of the team, as if I am being assigned a task because of who I am and not my skill set. The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. It’s the same color as mine and just as dead in spots. That’s life. I have to take my own advice which is harder to do than to give it. In the end, I need to focus on what makes me happy and not put that on pedestal as if a prize to be one. Happiness can occur even out of the darkest moments.
As a future theatrical worker for hire, reading this article only confirms my view on the free lance world that it’s really really hard. How can it be easy when you don’t know where your next job is coming from, and what lengths you might have to go to to keep a good impression and be a person people will want to hire. There are always going to be people that are better than me, but that does not mean I should just give up, because there's always theaters looking for new designers or extra hands. Although I do not know what the author of this article does for a living, I think they make some pretty solid points about how not everybody has a life of luxury, and some days are going to be better than others, and it is how you make the bad days into something good.
When I think of happiness, I tend to think about complete and utter joy in everything I do with every moment of the day. Like a goal. Or at least that was what I was lead to believe. I realized, not all that long ago, that happiness is not this way. It isn’t a goal and its idealized form can’t even be achieved. There are plenty of stories out there that portrays true happiness but for every story that portrays such there is a story that portrays its reality. This article brings up the point that there are three things that make you think you aren’t happy but when you forget about them you realize that you are indeed happy. I believe that this is true and it follows along the lines of ignorance is bliss. It works and it doesn’t have to be from ignorance but it is key when coming to achieve happiness. On the other hand, I feel like even the bad things while not in the moment can also be part of happiness. I believe that even with long hours, sucky lists of stuff to be done, and a lot of work can be an unfortunate part to life. Happiness truly arrives when those things that bring you down occur. However, in the moment they may suck but at the end of the day, those things can be enjoyable. When you have reached a point where even the sucky bits in life are still part of what you enjoy, then happiness in full has been achieved.
I feel like my soul wrote this article. I have thought and asked myself these three damaging items more times than I would like to admit. The one of the three that I connected with the most is:"That Peron's Job is Better Than Mine". I am constantly comparing myself to others, and while at times I agree that it can improve my performance, most of the time I think it is more hurtful than helpful. By comparing myself to others I'm constantly telling myself that I'm not good enough I lose confidence in myself. I need to understand that I'm talented in different ways from others. And perhaps their job only looks better from an outside perspective; they may be miserable with their job and I have no idea. In the future I need to learn to focus more on myself and my personal achievements than those of others'.
This is such a great article to encounter especially as so many of us are close to graduation and will be faced with these nagging questions up close and personal. The idea that you have to be happy all the time or your doing something wrong or that because someone else looks happy they are always happy or that because someone else's’ job looks really interesting doesn't mean your job is not good or fulfilling. We call have doubts about what we do. It’s how we face those doubts and move forward that make or break our emotions. Happiness is not something that you can grasp at by always waiting until something in the future will happen, it’s something that you have to look for wherever you are. Living truly in the moment and for the relationships around us is much more fulfilling than always looking to the future when one day I might have the perfect combination of things to make myself happy.
The thing that resonated and stuck with me the most form this article was, “HAPPINESS MEANS BEING HAPPY 100% OF THE TIME”. This I feel like is a hard thing to grasp, but such an important motto to have for your life. Especially when you are in a hard program like this one. I have to remind myself of this line every day. Sometime I will be doing something and I will be completely miserable (for example right now I am making flowers for a Susan project and it is horrible), but what I remind myself is that my temporary misery and distain for what I am doing is just situational on the tinniest level that overall in my life if I look beyond this moment I’m very happy. If people could keep this one point form this article with them and hold it like a mantra, the world would be a happier place instead of people so stuck in their temporary happiness and their ultimate goals and pursuit of happiness.
Happiness is the glamorous, attention-seeking, shallow little cousin of I think we all truly strive for, fulfillment. Meaning and accomplishment is something that many people spend their entire lives looking for in their careers, and what pushes so many to switch careers midway through their lives, or, if they don't have the means to switch, find satisfying hobbies and pastimes outside of their work to occupy themselves. If I take a look at how this semester is going for me, even as early as this, I cannot say I have been happy the whole time, and this is a problem which the author of this article has touched upon. I don't think it is actually possible to be happy 100% of the time, as that state is dependent on so many of the little variables that govern our daily lives, like if we completed our morning routine as usual, or if the bus was too full. It's like . Fulfillment, on the other hand, is something which I can build up within myself over time, and which is not easily movable.
To be honest, this all sounds very intellectual and pompous when I read it back, but finding meaning and fulfillment in my work is what drives me to get up out of bed and work insane hours for this school, so it's gotta mean something.
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