Confucius said: "They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom."
Success in a changing world requires changing strategies. So does happiness. Happiness is not some inert state of blissful being that's isolated in pristine purity from the ongoing turbulence of the world. As thinkers from Aristotle to Mary Ann Evans and beyond have realized, happiness is a dynamic state of being, which is actually a state of becoming, a process that involves ongoing changes in how we think, what we do, and what we expect.
There is such a thing as at least rough constancy in happiness, but there is no constancy of happiness - you can remain over time in a state of happiness only if you change states of mind, body, and spirit to accommodate and opportunistically capitalize on the new developments the world is always throwing at you. The dynamic flow of happiness can and must assume different shapes along the way.
The same is true in its own way of wisdom. The world’s unchanging wisdom demands of us ever changing activities as our circumstances change. We should never think that the ideal of life can involve predictable sameness in everything we do. Is inertia holding you back from changes you should be making? Is comfort? Is uncertainty? Is fear? We should all examine our lives with this question: “What am I doing that needs to be changed?”
Give it a try.
Today.
