subject: Achieving Fulfillment: How to Live Life Beyond "Having a Nice Day" [print this page] Achieving Fulfillment: How to Live Life Beyond "Having a Nice Day"
Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story ofThe Little Prince
Everybody is seeking fulfillment.
But how do you achieve fulfillment?
A great many people live at a surface level, seeking to be entertained in life, to have fun, to "have a nice day," hoping to experience fulfillment. But they never godeep in either their understanding or their relationships.
Fulfillment isn't found in the shallows. It's only when we stop merely dipping our toes in the water's edge and plunge fully into life's flow that we begin to experience what it is to be fulfilled.
Neither is fulfillment something weachieve.
On the contrary, fulfillment is something we relax into. Not in the lazy person's couch potato style, but by beingtrue to ourselves in every aspect of our life.
The conceited man the Little Prince has met on the second planet he visits is incapable of experiencing fulfillmentand even less capable of bringing fulfillment to anyone else.
That's because he lives an entirely surface life. He's just trying to have a nice day by being thought well of, admired, entertaining and being entertained.
The Little Prince is intrigued at first. But after a matter of minutes he finds the routine monotonous.
Why is it monotonous? Because it's inauthentic. It's a charade, a mask, a game.
There is no boredom in authenticity.
When we arepresent, simplybeing in a manner that's true to us, even if we are doing nothing at all we can never be bored.
It's boring to live your life centered around others, saying and doing everything you do in reference to how others will take it, seeking the approval of others, trying to please others, trying to "have a nice day."
The flip side of this is that when we begin to experience our own unique being, we become quite delightful to others and end up bringing them a lot of pleasure!
Amusement has its place. What we are talking about is finding our innermusethat which makes us tick. That's where fulfillment lies.
