Over time as I have gotten older I have been more and more of a seeker in life. One of mankind's biggest needs beyond love is the quest for happiness. I know that joy is different necessarily from happiness and comes from within. Joy is kind of like this zenith of happiness. Joy can be present despite outside circumstances. It is something you hold inside. Kind of like memories.
But I have found that what can spark these feelings of elation inside can have to do with highly positive events that you create for yourself in your life. I have observed that
JOY IS FOUND IN FANTASTIC FINISHES.
I have used quite a few sports analogies to relate to how life works. Life is a journey. It has competition. It has its ebbs and flows. You can find yourself a winner some days. Sometimes you are mired in the agony of defeat. Life requires practice to be good. We all have our role to play in a team effort. The competition and the conditions bring out our character. You can learn a lot about a person's character watching how they handle how a poorly played round of golf goes for them.
But with joy, if we work hard along a journey, and get to a finish, a "fantastic finish", there is no better feeling in the world. It is a great sense of accomplishment. You have overcome odds that may have been stacked against you.
Think of the 1980 Olympic mens USA hockey team that got by the heavily favored Soviet Union team to eventually win the Gold Medal. The men on that team can carry that joy with them, along with those fans that followed that game, for the rest of their lives.
Even in building a new home from the ground up or searching for weeks to find your "perfect" homestead, it is a feeling of jubilation when you cross the finish line. You have that joy in your heart.
I've personally been training to run a half marathon. Sometimes I think my goal is too low when I know others that are performing as triathletes and one lady I know who just completed an "Ironman" triathlon with enormous distances in swimming, biking, and running. But I know on my journey when I cross the finish line successfully I will have added another notch of joy to my belt, something no one can take away from me.
Now we all can't be at the superstar level in our fantastic finishes like a Tiger Woods in grinding out a sudden death win in the U.S. Open with a torn ACL.
But the point is we need to finish. And we need to have a "fantastic finish" to generate those great feelings inside.
I provide the sports visuals to help to imagine this inner joy. It truly is available for all of us if we just think about it.
A race car is probably another good visual. You are driving your life to an important goal. You need to be out on the track. You need skill. You need to navigate the turns and take a pit stop now and then. You above all need to FINISH to have that sense of accomplishment.
Fantastic finishes do not have to be all about lofty goals either. They could be as simple as taking a long needed vacation. The point is you got on the path and you completed it.
It is in the fulfillment of something when dreams come true. Live your life so no dreams are left on the shelf.
The secret to this joy thing is completion. Then there is more joy to be found.
So when you see that skinny kid coming up the road finishing his half marathon, know that he has just added another deposit into his joy bank.
May you have many fantastic finishes along your own journey.
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