The phrase “follow your heart” has been the moral of countless stories where the princess is told to pursue what makes her happy, and that would result in everything being perfect. Real life is quite a few steps away from a fairytale, and thus, happiness cannot be the holy grail one goes after to expect success. In the real world, a practical approach to making and carrying out goals is critical. Just pursuing happiness as a goal has detrimental effects, including being unable to cope with negative emotions and not having the capability to grow and learn from your experiences; thus, happiness should be used in tandem with other goal posts, such as financial success.
To start with, only chasing happiness as one’s sole aim in life results in not being able to deal with or handle emotions that are not as pleasant. For example, a person who only goes after happiness will completely break down at something like the death of a person. This event is completely devastating, and someone who does not have experience with negative emotions will feel this loss more intensely than someone who is hardened by past emotional encounters. Having a variety of emotions throughout one’s life and being able to deal with them allows a person to grow and, more importantly, learn from their mistakes. Every experience that someone undergoes changes them in some way, and diversity in one’s emotional aims allows them to get through virtually anything that is thrown at them. For instance, if one is set in their ways and the fact that their only goal in life is to be happy at all times, they would be less willing to take career advice, as they only believe in moment-to-moment happiness and will not think of the long-term consequences of their decisions.
While only having happiness as a goal could be detrimental to one’s future, including happiness as a factor in one’s future plans is important. Focusing on only monetary success or societal opinion as an aim can cause someone to be in a situation they are not comfortable in. One example of this is the infamous old Indian tradition of forced marriages, or marriages of convenience. These are marriages done purely for the sake of one’s familial obligations or for monetary reasons, without caring about the happiness of the two people involved. This can cause someone to be with a person they do not love for the rest of their lives, with no chance of future contentment. These situations can be avoided if happiness is added to the equation and considered before making irreversible decisions.
Overall, only having happiness as a goal can have quite dire consequences, as it can cause one to live in an idealistic world without learning from other emotions, being unable to emotionally or psychologically develop from experiences, and being unable to take advice from others about their decisions. However, if happiness is not in the equation at all, this can cause severe discontentment with life. Thus, the best way that happiness can be enjoyed in the future is to use it as a goal, along with other, more pragmatic goals that truly ensure that one has a stable livelihood and is truly comfortable in life.
