On Self-Doubt and Joy

[da]

Zeitgeist says: a bunch of us are worried about where we are, planning for the future, and what comes next. I'm feeling it, and so are at least half a dozen people on my friends-list, especially with that sentence-meme about dissatisfaction and self-doubt going around. I do think firecat has some excellent points, though I'm not going to copy that sentence into my journal, even though there are times that I feel exactly that way.

Instead, I am going to quote boutell, with the hope that you'll go and read the post it came from. Because right now I feel this way.

"Joy might look like something that happens to somebody else, someone who has an effortless lock on happiness. But it's not like that. Joy is hard work. It is something we create in spite of everything. It is the habit of a lifetime. The sooner learned, the better." boutell

Yes.

Comments

[pnijjar.livejournal.com]

... so those of us who are not joyful just aren't working hard enough. If we tightened our belts and pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps we would be joyful too!

[lcohen]

i came here to read this after reading your comments in epi_lj's journal.

i've been thinking a lot about aspects of what you say here (and discussing them with my partners and such) because i think we do have to choose to find ways to be happy. that doesn't mean (to address the other commenter) that a path that leads to happiness is always available, but it does mean that we have to look and think and stay conscious.

i'm at a point in my life when too many branches lie in front of me--there are too many "if" statements--if X happens then i go down this path and have these choices but i can't make X happen--that sort of thing. i don't have control over a lot of things. so i choose to provide as much information to those who can make choices right now as i can, and to find singular joy--singing, dancing, time with friends or lovers--where i can, as opposed to overarching life choices that might lead to joy. and to be an actor in my life.

[firecat]

Here via epi_lj. I agree with boutell but my usual methods of finding satisfaction in life weren't resulting in satisfaction for some reason. And then I began to hear about other people in exactly the same position. And I wondered why. Surely all these highly intelligent and successful people who had lived between a third and a half of their life expectancy hadn't entirely missed out on the notion that one has to make effort to be satisfied. So what else might be going on?