What is happiness: reach for goals, work hard BUT happiness is in the moments and in acceptance!

Focus on moments, more than goals, plans or dreams and Accept what you find.


We can take these two elements even deeper. Together, they represent two very powerful principles of the universe that I would translate as:
** Live in the present (Be Here Now) and
** Learn to accept and cooperate with what is.
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from an article in the huffington post by Russell Bishop:

In my work on the difference between symbols vs. experience, I have found that many people seem to suffer from the illusion that happiness, satisfaction or fulfillment (experience) are a result of accomplishing some goal or, more to the point, of acquiring something in the material world (symbol).

I can certainly understand and have experienced the illusionary pull of a better future if only I could (fill in the blank). However, my experience suggests that all kinds of us, men and women alike, have made the choice to either defer happiness today for the prospects of an even happier future if only I could (fill in the blank) or have equated happiness with achieving or acquiring something in the physical world. It's kind of the old bumper sticker mentality of "He wins who acquires the most toys."

My theory as that over the past 40 years, as American society exited the "Father Knows Best" or "Leave It To Beaver" mentality of the 50's and 60's, we seem to have increasingly equated success and fulfillment with jobs, career advancement, position title, bank accounts, and other symbols of success. If you were one of those statistical women who took on job, career or economic goals as your "symbols" of success, you just might have wound up sacrificing what mattered most in hopes of greener pastures at the other end of job, career or economic goals.

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