coupland's Journal: Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies

Sometimes people's lives are ruled by what they want or what they desire. A bigger house, a new car, a promotion, better health, a wife, a husband, a baby -- we think that these are the key to happiness. But I think that any attempt to make happiness contingent on future rewards is doomed to failure because the future is precisely that -- the future. It never arrives. You'll never possess what you desire because the moment you possess it, it ceases to be a desire. I'm not trying to be clever or sound like a fortune cookie here, the fact of the matter is that desires are by their nature rooted in the future and thus can never be achieved. If you think that you cannot be happy until you achieve something then you can never be happy. Happiness can only come from an appreciation for what you already have.