Happiness

"Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times-although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage. For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves.

Ok, this is probably the longest quote I will ever have but it is most likely one of the most amazing and perfect things I have ever read. This paragraph in an instance has pin pointed the exact reason why I love to do what I do. The more you have to struggle, push, fight, and stretch to be able to achieve a goal, then the goal once attained is an accomplishment. This accomplishment will always have an effect on the body that is akin to happiness. I as a person love to backpack, hike, and now bike. The main difference with this is that unlike others who enjoy to do the same things, I find no satisfaction in any of these unless I have found a way to push myself to the limit set by my body and hopefully push past that. A life goal I have is to one day climb Mt. Everest and as such I am reading a book on an account of someone who has sumitted. To climb Everest there is no joy in the journey, it is quite the opposite you are pushed to below zero conditions, lungs burning with no end in sight, and this is only at the second camp. The fact that every single person who has attempted or has sumitted Everest gets to the top or close by shear force of will is why they find happiness. At the utmost limit to bodily hardship they still made it, I hope to make that. It is the extremes in life that give you happiness strictly for the reason that it took both body and soul to do whatever it is you did.