twentyfiveyearslater

[twentyfiveyearslater]

consumption vs. production being happy vs. happiness

I had this idea of what makes a person truly happy while watching a comedy special by Jerry Seinfeld on Netflix. 

“I wasn’t planning on really getting anywhere doing this [comedy, living in a tiny apartment in New York City], by the way. I just loved it and I wanted to do it.”

“And, yes, there was heckling and bombing, and someone once threw a glass at me that shattered on stage. I remember a couple of people who were interested in a physical fight. None of it bothered me. I was in comedy, and it just felt like heaven.”

Said the man behind Seinfeld and Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee (just to name a few), and one that has been in the show business doing comedy since 1976 until this very day. 

When you devote your lifetime to be the producer of something you are truly passionate about, and you can sustain the production, you are bound to be in a state of happiness. 

Achieving the state of happiness has nothing to do with whether you are successful or not. It has absolutely nothing to do with returns but everything to do with what you do and what you care about. 

In the modern age of consumerism, everyone is busy consuming contents and material. Consumption does make us happy - there’s no doubt to it. Buying a new pair of Rupert Sanderson, drinking a cup of flat-white from Nodi, watching Conan fighting a sumo wrestler, receiving sensual and cerebral stimulations while exploring new places, having a good laugh with friends - all these uplifting experiences make me happy. But being happy is temporary and it comes just as quickly as it goes. There is no happiness if you stay forever on the receiving end of products. The state of happiness, as I understood, is a deep and lasting feeling of content and self-satisfaction that will not be so easily taken away from you by the daily ups and downs. 

Mother nature gives us intelligence and the faculty of reason to devise, create, and produce. We farm, we cook, we build, we paint; we make music and art, we philosophise and we inspire. Receiving instant gratifications from consumption is great but it is subject to the law of diminishing marginal returns, changing tastes and preferences so on and so forth. Engaging yourself in a sustainable production of the thing that you love, on the other hand, gives you not just gratifications but also a sense of validation that proves the value of your existence. 

These thoughts are the result of self-reflection after recent episodes of personal failures. I am having trouble finding my foothold in the world that does not seem to agree with my personality. I realised how quickly confidence I had in myself started crumbling and being replaced by self-doubt once I hit a roadblock. But this post isn’t about me. It’s about all of us, as human being. To build the fortress of happiness that shields us from harsh criticism, failures, confrontations and all the displeasure in life, we have to make things come into being - rock someone else’ world and bring home the unshakable state of happiness.