When we think deeply about our motivations and desires, we find that our driving force is towards a certain state of being and not an accomplishment in and of itself. In essence, not how something appears on paper, but how doing or reading that thing makes us feel.
Not to be confused with short-sighted hedonism in the pursuit of momentary pleasure, we should look for meaningful and sustainable sources of these desired states. In particular, activities that provide compounding effects over time.
When we construct a life around these principles, of choosing to dedicate our time and energy to actions that elicit sustainable positive experiences, we realize that our conscious minds were set on the wrong target the entire time. Instead of accolades, our true desire is to immerse ourselves in a state of flow. It is within this state where everything else becomes easier, but most of all, where we find our true bliss.
“The happiest people spend much time in a state of flow – the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi