Skip To Content
    This post has not been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed's editorial staff. BuzzFeed Community is a place where anyone can create a post or quiz. Try making your own!

    Several Hours Before My 27th Birthday

    I ask myself "What is it that I want to write to my family?"

    I reflect on life again

    I imagine myself as a 90-year-old laying on my death bed.

    Soon to die.

    But still able to write a letter before I'm gone forever.

    I think, “What is it that I want to write to my family?”

    Here is what I come up with:

    Happiness is not the right way to measure your life…

    Because, what is happiness?

    I cannot answer that question.

    But I can say that:

    You cannot go through life trying to find happiness.

    Because you may never find the meaning of happiness.

    And because eventually, you will ALWAYS fail to be happy.

    Because life, is a series of “Ups” and “Downs”.

    Because it is a series of happiness and unhappiness.

    No I’m not bipolar.

    But it is inevitable that life will hit you HARD.

    Someone will die.

    Someday you will feel betrayed.

    Someday you will feel utterly useless.

    You will cry.

    You will be angry.

    You will lose hope.

    And you WILL be unhappy.

    Searching like most people for that permanent state of happiness is unattainable.

    You will never always have it.

    You will sometimes have it.

    And if your goal is to always be happy…

    You WILL fail.

    And you will fail HARD.

    To me, measuring life using happiness is wrong.

    To me, happiness seems so vague and undefined.

    If it was easy and clear, then we would all have it.

    But we don’t.

    So I propose a new measurement.

    Satisfaction.

    Are you satisfied with your life?

    That, to me, seems like a much easier question to answer than "Are you happy?"

    That, to me, seems more attainable in a long-term state than achieving happiness.

    So I say to you, don’t seek happiness in your life, seek satisfaction.

    Are you satisfied with your life?

    If that still seems like too big of a question to answer then break it down into pieces:

    Are you satisfied with your love life?

    Are you satisfied with your relationships with your family and friends?

    Are you satisfied with your job?

    Are you satisfied with how much money you make?

    Are you satisfied with how many materialistic things you have?

    Answer those questions to help you answer the BIG, overall question:

    Are you satisfied with your life?

    And if you answer “No” ask yourself: "What do you have to do to answer Yes?”

    You will still fail many times in being satisfied in life, but getting to overall satisfaction, in my opinion, is easier than getting to that mystical happy state.

    Or maybe, the meaning of happiness, is finding satisfaction.