Over the years, one can point to several instances of maturity that helped me develop into the man I am today.\u00a0 Of all these experiences and self-inflicted epiphanies, perhaps none were more effective in helping building my character than my ability to accept the happiness of others.<\/p>\n

I have developed into a perfectionist. \u00a0Every element of my life receives attention and is planned. \u00a0As I type this, I sit in dusted and vacuumed room at a desk parallel to a closet. \u00a0In this closet, my shirts are color coordinated and hung on the same hangers. \u00a0My bed is made, my cat is brushed, and laundry is finished. \u00a0I have my food prepped for tomorrow. \u00a0I have my schedule written out for everything I\u2019d like to accomplish by the end of the night. \u00a0Bottom line is that my perfectionism has led me into a life of standards. \u00a0I view everything as having a standard of perfection\u00a0accompanied with a high degree of specificity. \u00a0My biggest fault lies in the fact that,\u00a0at one point,\u00a0it was near impossible for me\u00a0to provide recognition in\u00a0anything that wasn\u2019t to standard. \u00a0That goes for myself and for others and can be witnessed in every aspect of life, most notably: happiness.<\/p>\n

Over the years I have\u00a0involuntarily created\u00a0a set criterion that should yield \u2018acceptable\u2019 happiness. \u00a0Hard work in school, concentration on self improvement, fulfillment of career goals, eating clean, and training dirty. \u00a0Those were traits that I deemed acceptable to provide happiness for myself. \u00a0 My close-mindedness led me to hold others accountable to those standards. \u00a0When I was in college, I thought that those who went out, partied, got drunk, did recreational drugs, and the like were all worthless and I largely looked down upon their fulfillment of happiness as being unacceptable. \u00a0Everyone should be happy like me. \u00a0Everyone should work hard for their money, take their vitamins, and say \u2018I love you\u2019 to their families as often as possible. \u00a0How could one have to audacity to find happiness in anything other than that which made me happy?<\/p>\n

Everything we do in life is aimed at happiness and fulfilling a satisfied mental equilibrium. \u00a0I\u2019d challenge anyone to refute that statement. \u00a0Why do we eat? \u00a0We eat because we\u2019re hungry and it makes us happy to satisfy our hunger. \u00a0We do we dress nice? \u00a0We dress nice because it allows us to become beneficiaries of compliments, which makes us feel happy. \u00a0Why do we procreate? \u00a0We do this because it makes us happy by providing innumerable internal benefits as well as satisfying our natural urges. \u00a0That said, it\u2019s important to realize that every action, be it that of Mother Teresa or Charles Manson, is solely aimed at happiness. \u00a0Happiness is subjective. \u00a0That which makes us happy varies astronomically from person to person. \u00a0At one point in high school I satisfied my happiness by loading up the washer with all the detergent I could find in the Home\u00a0Ec\u00a0room, laughing endlessly at\u00a0the mess that ensued a few periods later. \u00a0Nowadays, I satisfy that need by giving my all to the students I teach and the athletes I coach. \u00a0If I were to look at my happiness fulfillment from yesteryear, there\u2019s no way it would meet the standard of today. \u00a0It took me over 20 years, but I finally realized it \u2013 you can\u2019t hold others\u2019\u00a0happiness to the same standard to which you hold your own.<\/p>\n

Everyone wants to be happy, no doubt. \u00a0If someone you know feels the need to quench their thirst for happiness\u00a0by partaking in actions that my not live up to your standards then let it be. \u00a0Sure, the actions of some may seem reckless and immoral, but morals are subjective as well. \u00a0We need to understand that regardless of how vehemently we may disagree with one\u2019s actions, they\u2019re just\u00a0fulfilling\u00a0their need for happiness. \u00a0We all mature and it simply takes some longer than others. \u00a0Live and let live. \u00a0Try to not be overly judgmental, but still offer some advice when you can. \u00a0You can\u2019t save the world but you can save yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the years, one can point to several instances of maturity that helped me develop into the man I am today.\u00a0 Of all these experiences and self-inflicted epiphanies, perhaps none were more effective in helping building my character than my ability to accept the happiness of others. I have developed into a perfectionist. \u00a0Every element […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2992,5,1],"tags":[1641,1642,1643,1656,1657,1640],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2194,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192\/revisions\/2194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcon1online.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}