I just read a blog post written by my friend Chris, from Too Legit Clothing. In his post, Chris reflected on giving up playing basketball, something that he was very passionate about. At the end of the post he mentioned happiness, and how we all how the ability to create our own happiness. That got me thinking…

Happiness is a weird thing.

Far too often we get so caught up in what other people think that we lose sight of ourselves. We are so worried about keeping up with the latest trends that we forget what truly makes us happy. The root of the problem? I’m no expert, but materialistic possessions play a pretty darn big role. We are deceived by tricky advertisers that we need stuff to make us happy. They make us believe that we will be depressed, ugly, and useless if we don’t buy exactly what they are selling us. We see our celebrity role models and our friends with this stuff and we convince ourselves that we need it as well. We have Blackberry phones, Coach purses, and jeans that cost $150 a pair. Sometimes these purchases can be justified, but more often they cannot be. When we buy this stuff, we get an adrenaline rush. An intense burst of happiness. We have the latest and greatest, and we fit right into society.

Unfortunately, that high has a brief lifespan. Shortly after we purchase these things, they slip right out of style. They’re no longer in. They aren’t trendy. Though completely functional, they are useless to us. Once again, we find that we are unhappy. We’re right back where we started - depressed, ugly, and useless. We have to grab hold of that lost happiness, so we run back to the mall and throw down hard-earned cash for more stuff. How convenient for multinational corporations who sell these things that we so desperately need.

It is a downward spiral, and an endless one. We buy stuff to make us happy. We lose that happiness, so we think that more stuff will bring back that lost happiness. Over and over and over again. Before we know it, we’re old and grey. We’re laying on our deathbeds, asking ourselves “Where has life gone? What have we done?”.

I’m not sure about you, but this is not the life that I want to live. I don’t want to look back each year and say “Look at all of this stuff I have acquired!”. I don’t want to live in a future that has been created for me; a future that is defined by useless stuff that can be purchased. Stuff that is mass-produced by cheap labor in foreign countries and sold to us at ridiculously inflated prices. Stuff that is produced by people on the other side of the planet who we do not know and have absolutely no personal relation to. Stuff that we purchase with hope that we will be that much closer to achieving happiness.

I will seek out what truly brings me happiness. I will set goals and chase dreams. I will discover hobbies and embrace my passions. I will focus less on buying things and more on doing things. I will watch movies, listen to music, and read books. I will interact with people and learn about the world around me. I will build experiences and create memories. Memories last forever and can be enjoyed at any time in any place. Memories bring a lifetime of happiness.

Instead of living in a future that has been created for me, I will create my own future. I hope that you will do the same.

-a guy named loren