If happiness/success is finding a goal or path that one follows with the unrestrained joy of a dog chasing a tennis ball, how does one find one’s tennis ball?
Look for patterns of energy, audit micro-moments. Think back on your day, when did you smile? When did you laugh? Where did you get sudden bursts of energy?
What generates that energy? What sparked those moments? What do you remember and why?
Your tennis ball is as much hidden inside how you engage as what you engage with. What are you magnetically pulled to?
What are you willing to repeat endlessly without boredom? What do you keep doing even when it’s frustrating? After all, the dog doesn’t stop chasing because the ball bounced weirdly.
Don’t overthink it, you are going for feelings. Dogs don’t sit and analyze tennis balls, they just do it because it’s intrinsically rewarding; the chase is the reward.
Closing Quotes:
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”– Howard Thurman
“What you find yourself doing… tell[s] you what you should do. Because sometimes the things we do without thinking really are things we naturally enjoy or are good at.” – Gretchen Rubin
“The most successful people are obsessed with solving an important problem that matters to them. They remind me of a dog chasing a tennis ball: their eyes go a little crazy, the leash snaps and they go bounding off, plowing through whatever gets in the way… So after today, it’s not about pushing yourself; it’s about finding your tennis ball — the thing that pulls you.” – Drew Houston (Dropbox co-founder and CEO, 2013 MIT Commencement Address)
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
Note: Every effort has been made to properly source any 3rd person material. I am, however, a voracious reader. If anyone finds any unattributed material, pls let me know asap and I will be delighted to give credit where credit is due.
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
