Happiness is a Warm Gun

Shawn Maxam says we have to refocus our priorities. Instead of living to work we should rather work to live.

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.

-David Brinkley

Every single day I see men and women engage in behaviors that are slowly destroying their emotional, psychological and physical well-being all for the sake of a perceived notion of happiness. You are probably quite familiar with this due to your own actions or someone you know very well.

Examples include the Ph.d student who is severely depressed because of his or her academic pursuits to the hedge fund manager who takes heart disease prescription drugs illegally to deal with the stress of the workplace. Our collective pursuit of happiness seems to be paradoxically linked to our collective dismissal of the effects this pursuit is having on our own health.

What is the point of accumulating wealth, status and material possessions if our bodies and minds are too broken to enjoy the results of our hard-work? There needs to a more sensible approach. I’m not promoting some new age work-life balance philosophy. I am just stating that we have to mindful of the damage we are doing to ourselves when pursuing success with reckless abandon. The mantra we all have to embrace is robust self-care before debilitating success.