Be Happy with the picture of your puzzle.

Maybe as humans we are supposed to be free...we always seem to be happier when we are doing things on our own time. Studies will show that people are much more productive when they choose when to fulfill their obligations as opposed to being told. There are, of course, responsibilities in life but I don't think that's an issue with most people. I know that I prefer to have responsibilities but when life becomes too much like a pathless wood, where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs broken across it and one eye is weeping from a twigs having lashed across it open...my good friend Robert Frost has said, life becomes as meaningless as the things you've filled it with. When push comes to shove what do we really want to do? What would really make us happy? We can find happiness in succeeding-having a full time job and balancing school, possibly having children and relationships- but who says we have to do it the way everyone else is? They don't seem too happy...just what society would consider to be successful. We should be both. 

The successful are all too often categorized to be those that put business first and foremost but I think success is happiness. If a person can achieve happiness in whatever condition life may be, that to me is true success. When you think of our society's view on a successful person, it is often to think of a man who puts a lot of time into work and, before work, school. Someone who is an “overachiever” by name, who has many medals on his resume that can be considered a success in society and as a human being. What often do we find these people lacking? Look at the character of Ebeneezer Scrooge, wealthy, busy, worked hard...but unhappy because he forgot of the importance of himself. When we place too much value on the temporal things this world has to offer it becomes easy to forget about our spirits and joy, then you get so far from the idea that you don't remember what that is or that it's missing. Of course, there are  instances in which this isn't always the case, those few, rare times where people portray happiness because of money and I can never know what's in another persons head, all I can know is what I am willing to see in an unbiased fashion, according to the laws of reality (though that are, always, debatable) and that is simply that we should not forget ourselves in the hustle and bustle of life and living it. Living life is different than participating it; we all have to participate by default but those wise enough can choose to live. Live Life. 

What I was saying, though- a solution for the oh-so-easy habits that form into forgetfulness of our own agency to choose to be happy- I suggest we choose our own time for obligations. Don't fit yourself into obligations, Fit them around you, it seems to me we are all more likely to accomplish more when we  aren't overwhelmed and we seem to be more overwhelmed when we find ourselves forming time consuming habits during the time we didn't want to give in the first place. If something doesn't fit, don't try to make it or change the puzzle to make fit it...cut off the edges ; P No, don't cut off the edges. Find the right pieces to the puzzle that is your life, we can't see the full picture, yet, because the puzzle isn't finished. The best we can do is find the right pieces for our life now and strive to be pleased with the picture our lives are creating in the end. Are you happy with your puzzle?