Quotes About Fulfillment

It wasn't the amount of stuff; it was the engagement with that stuff [that mattered for happiness].

Many assume that offering a reward will help people to jump-start a healthy habit, which will then persist after the reward fades away. Not so. Often, as soon as the reward stops (and sometimes before it stops), the behavior stops.

I was comforted by the words of my model Benjamin Franklin, who reflected of his own chart: On the whole, though I never arrived at perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet as I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man that I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it.

I had everything I could possibly want—yet I was failing to appreciate it. Bogged down in petty complaints and passing crises, weary of struggling with my own nature, I too often failed to comprehend the splendor of what I had.

Feeling right" is about living the life that's right for you—in occupation, location, marital status, and so on. It's also about virtue: doing your duty, living up to the expectations you set for yourself. For some people, "feeling right" can also include less elevated considerations: achieving a certain job status or material standard of living.

Feeling right" is about living the life that's right for you—in occupation, location, marital status, and so on. It's also about virtue: doing your duty

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.

to other people than from receiving support yourself. I certainly get more satisfaction out of thinking about good deeds I've done for other people than I do from thinking about good deeds that others have done for me.

happiness is not having less; happiness is not having more; happiness is wanting what I have.

as always, Upholders must make sure to articulate their inner expectations.

But, as a follow-up, I asked myself, "Can money help buy happiness?" The answer: yes, used wisely, it can.

Happiness," wrote Yeats, "is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. —Toni Morrison, Tar Baby

studies show that the absence of feeling bad isn't enough to make you happy; you must strive to find sources of feeling good. One

Enjoy now." If I can enjoy the present, I don't need to count on the happiness that is (or isn't) waiting for me in the future. The fun part doesn't come later, now is the fun part. That's another reason I feel lucky to enjoy my work so much. If you're doing something that you don't enjoy and you don't have the gratification of success, failure is particularly painful. But doing what you love is itself the reward.

I remind myself: Just because something is fun for other people doesn't mean it's fun for me—and it's a lot easier to stick to a habit that I honestly enjoy.

I had everything that I could wish for; I wanted to make my home happier by appreciating how much happiness was already there.

And of course, arriving at one goal usually reveals another, yet more challenging goal. Publishing the first book means it's time to start the second. There's another hill to climb. The challenge, therefore, is to take pleasure in the "atmosphere of growth

perhaps the most acute source of happiness from writing was the happiness of expressing a very complicated idea–the kind of idea that takes hundreds of pages to capture.

Happiness experts point out that merely making and sticking to a decision is a source of happiness, because it gives you a feeling of control, of efficacy, of responsibility. At times of

Life is too short to save your good china or your good lingerie or your good ANYTHING for later because truly, later may never come

For a happy life, it's important to cultivate an atmosphere of growth—the sense that we're learning new things, getting stronger, forging new relationships, making things better, helping other people.

Perhaps, the feeling of control is an essential element of happiness - a better predictor of happiness than, say, income. Having a feeling of autonomy, of being able to choose what happens in your life or how you spend your time, is crucial.

There's no magic, one-size-fits-all solution to creating a happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative life; we can build a better life only on the foundation of our own nature, our own interests