“It is quite impossible to unite happiness with a yearning for what we don’t have. Happiness has all that it wants, and resembling the well-fed, there shouldn’t be hunger or thirst.”
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.24.17
You can’t combine happiness with wanting more. It just isn’t possible. By wanting what you don’t have, you are forgoing happiness. Why? Because they’re opposites. Happiness, by definition, means being content with what you have. Not always seeking more. That’s the wisdom from today’s entry in The Daily Stoic.
We already know that happiness doesn’t come from having material possessions. That much is obvious, and you won’t find many people disagreeing with that statement. In fact, to be happier you have to actually reduce your want of more things.
So, what does happiness come from? It comes from having a strong soul. And it comes from being pleased with the things you do have. Not always seeking the next big object or event, but just being satisfied and pleased with your life right in front of you.
Perhaps most importantly, happiness is now. Meaning that happiness is experienced immediately, right this moment — because that’s all it needs. “Happiness has all that it wants,” says Epictetus in the quote above. It lives in the moment and is self-fulfilling and self-satisfying.
Happiness is surrender to the here and now. It’s not dependent on any particular future event or occurrence. “Oh as soon as this thing happens, then I’ll really be happy at last.” That’s not how it works. If you can’t find your joy in the current moment, then no future moment or eventual reality is going to unlock it for you. Because good things come from within, not from without.
And your joy will not come in the future — it is right now.
