The pursuit of happiness

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Imagine a world where we are free to wander around.

In this world, we can choose a goal and pursue it.

Given a position, our happiness compass tells us which direction to move to increase our happiness.

When we change our goal, the happiness compass will also change, telling us a new direction to move to.

Life is simple when we have only one goal to pursue, but things become more complex when we have multiple goals. All of a sudden, our happiness compass starts to spin erratically. How do we know which goal to pursue? This one? That one? The other one? Or the other one?

Before we know it, we start spinning in circles, pursuing every goal and finding joy in none.

I realized this is why I sometimes feel unhappy even when I make progress towards my goals. When there are too many goals, our happiness compass becomes unsure which direction is forward.

The world we live in offers endless ways to pursue happiness, and so it is ultimately up to us to decide how many goals we want to pursue at any given time. Sometimes, just one might be enough.