“When we help ourselves, we find moments of happiness. When we help others, we find lasting fulfillment.” ~ Simon Sinek

Chasing happiness is a vicious cycle that is very hard to step off of. The media and society are constantly telling us what will make us happy. That new dress, an amazing dessert, a cocktail…those new shoes…

So, we pursue and achieve it; it feels good; it brings us pleasure; some feel good hormones release into our brain and we are ‘happy’ – for a moment. Then it wears off…and our brain wants more, because it felt good. And our brain knows that the new dress, the new shoes, that amazing dessert or that cocktail made us feel good before and it wants us to feel good again, so it creates the desire for us to buy another dress, have another dessert, order another cocktail, buy new shoes…whatever it is that makes us feel good.

The problem with the cycle is that you have to keep feeding it. That is the thing about happiness derived from pleasure…pleasure is a temporary thing, therefore, so is the happiness created by this pleasure.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a cute new dress or an amazing slice of cheesecake as much as the next girl. The problem is not in buying or having nice/pleasurable things. The problem lies within these ‘rewards’ being our main source of happiness.

Just in reading the definition of Fulfillment vs. Happiness, I definitely want to achieve fulfillment over happiness. Happiness seems so fleeting.

Fulfillment: The state or quality of being fulfilled; completion; realization

Happiness: The emotion of being happy; joy

How do you find fulfillment?