Sustainable happiness

I am sitting at a diner located near my office and I am wrapped up in my thoughts. Work, life, progress, future, service - the usual stuff. Lately, it's been a more continuous, more sustained feeling of sorrow and loss. Not sure due to what but something seems amiss.

The concept of sustained development has been ingrained in the mind but a newer concept is now taking root - sustainable happiness. That should be the metric of our success in life. For how long, and to what degree we have managed to remain happy. Simple.

If we take the premise that one who is content is happy, then happiness is the mere satisfaction of our wants. But how do we sustain it? The answer simply is to control the wants and mitigate the needs.

So how do we control the wants? Suppose I'm working at this office, I have a house to live in and I have a decent family. In this simple case, my wants can range from wanting that promotion or pay raise at the office, to wanting to pay out my mortage completely, to wanting to do more service in the social sector. Each one of these wants has a precursor tied to it and in the scheme of things, the wants appear completely rational. After all, it's not like I'm wanting to kill someone for his money or wanting to usurp another country's territory.

So how do I become content in my own space and still strive to progress in life?