Hard Work for Authentic Happiness
A friend sent me this quote from Steven Covey. It’s about Pleasure Centerdness…
“We live in a world where instant gratification is available and encouraged. Television and movies are major influences in increasing people’s expectations… pleasure, per se, offers no deep, lasting satisfaction or sense of fulfillment. A
person in this state becomes almost entirely narcissistic, interpreting all of life in terms of the pleasure it provides to the self here and now. Too many vacations that last too long, too many movies, too much TV, too much video game playing–too much undisciplined leisure time in which a person continually takes the course of least resistance gradually wastes a life.”
Overcome Instant Gratification: Wow is this accurate! A fundamental truth about life today is that we all need to hustle a bit more each and every day. To hustle means to try harder than you are currently trying. I’ve seen too many people waste too much time and talent doing things that will never make them truly happy. We want instant gratification even though few things in life worth having are that easy to obtain. We figure out too late in life that just making ourselves happy isn’t true happiness at all.
Here is how it happens: We try hard in life for a while and find out that’s it’s really hard to do the right things in life all the time⎯to care about others, to excel at school or work, to win over the people’s trust, to act with character. So, we settle for the lowest common denominator and just do the easy things that make us happy.
If you played sports as a kid you’ll remember the coach yelling, “Hey _____(insert your name here)… HUSTLE!” What this meant was, unless you try harder than you are currently trying, you’re going to get splinters from sitting on the bench all game. I wish we had someone like that in life—someone who could sit us out until we get it—until we try harder. We don’t, so it’s up to you. Life is about contributing something to the greater good.
Trust me—it will make you the kind of happy that’s worth it.
Corey’s keynote, Chasing Authentic Success, teaches students how they can achieve amazing things in life by keeping things like relationships, character and contentment in mind. Corey’s programs are perfect for any character development, first year experience, leadership or values clarification program.
Visit campuspeak.com/ciocchetti to learn more about Corey and to watch his video.
RSS
CAMPUSPEAK Home