The pursuit of happiness is a common goal for all types of people. People selfishly and desperately try to seek out what will make them the happiest for their entire lives. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to be happy, I have begun to realize that people, once they have happiness, completely take it for granted because they try to make it last forever. We all try to disregard our mortality but really, nothing lasts forever. We think too much of the future rather than living in the now.

This idea of taking happiness for granted came to me while watching the FX show Louie, in which Louis C.K. talks about divorce and how everything has to die. That sounds depressing, I know, but the fact that people still dream of some kind of immortality is probably more depressing.

Think for a second of the moments you missed out on because you were trying to pursue something more; something that you thought would give you some long-term, deeper happiness. In the end, there is no deeper fulfillment. Like everything on this planet, happiness eventually dies no matter how much you want it to stay, no matter how much it really means it you.

I’m still depressing you, right? But the way I see it, living in the now and not worrying about the future in terms of life-long happiness may actually lead to a fuller, happier life. I’m not suggesting you living with everything in the short term, just learn to enjoy what’s staring you in the face rather than worrying about if it will last the next however many years.

That’s enough preaching though. The true question lies in why so many people feel a need to pursue everlasting happiness. I believe there are two things that make most people pursue some sort eternal contentment. Paranoia is one. It’s terrifying to think that maybe in five, 10, or 20 years all our loved ones could be gone. People move, change and die with just the blink of an eye. Everything a person knows could disappear.

This fear seems to explain why so many pursue the eternal — even though there truly is no forever. Even someone like me — who is completely aware of that — still pursues eternity, if only on a subconscious level. Reality is harsh and the thought of having an especially hard day with nothing to fall back on to cheer you up can really eat away at a person.

The second drive behind everlasting happiness is fear of one’s own mortality. Death is a reality that almost all of us choose to ignore — with good reason. No one knows what happens after you die. This explains people’s faith in religion and afterlife. People want something that is a sure thing and will always be with them.

That happiness may not last or stay with a person for all eternity is just like the possibility of there being only darkness after death: it is a truth much too harsh for most to see.

With all this I am trying to say make a conscious effort to live life in the moment. Worrying about the future completely counteracts the happiness you worked to achieve. So instead of thinking about how long it will last just enjoy it while you have it.

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image: Warner Bros.