the up-side of down

Over the last 24 to 48 hours, somebody probably asked you this question, "How are you?" Or maybe you asked the question to someone else, "How are you?" [laughs] Can I suggest that maybe the answer you didn't use or maybe you didn't hear very often or maybe at all was, "I'm so happy." [laughs] Like, maybe you heard, "Fine," "Good," "Okay," or, "Got a bit of a cold." But let me ask you this question.

When was the last time you were truly happy? Like, I don't just mean for a moment or for an hour or for an evening, but I mean for, like, weeks at a time, months at a time, maybe a few years, maybe a decade where you're like, "I was so happy." [laughs] Now, some of you are chuckling with cynicism, going, "Really? Decades [laughs] of feeling happy?" Or perhaps my question has reminded you of a season where you said you were.

You would've felt...

You look back and think, "I was so happy," but it's kinda slipped through your fingers, which is kind of odd, isn't it? Because we live in a culture that, in fact, a continent that is built on the pursuit of personal happiness.

In the United States, the Declaration of Independence, um, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Here in Canada, we associate happiness with rights and freedoms, the ability to pursue and be free to, uh, do or be or become or go after whatever it is that will make you happy.

So we live in a culture that is wired for happiness.

In fact, some of you, um, perhaps your parents or grandparents or maybe you came to this country, maybe you left another country that was, uh, not a good situation, a difficult situat- an undesirable situation, an unfortunate situation, so that you could build a life for yourself or your kids or your grandkids where they could be happy.

We live in a culture dedicated to the pursuit of happiness, and in fact, that is considered.

We often say, "Hey, whatever makes you happy," whether that's in career or relationships or money or purchases or life.

We live in a culture that is dedicated to the pursuit of happiness.

[laughs] But as Arthur Brooks, the social scientist and researcher from Harvard says, he says, "You know, Mick Jagger wasn't exactly right.

It's not true that I can't get no satisfaction.

The truth is I can't keep no satisfaction." Why does happiness seem so hard to find or at least so hard to keep? The truth is, we keep looking.

[laughs] We can't stop looking.

And here's what's crazy about it.

I used to work in media and advertising, and we used to be able to just blame the media for trying to make us unhappy with our lives and give us a promise of happiness.

"Hey, buy this hair product," you know, "Take this, uh, this trip to this beautiful place," or, "Try light beer," or, "Retire at 55 and you will be truly happy." It used to be just the media that, 'cause they were trying to get us to buy something.

[laughs] But you know now who's, who's trying to help you pursue happiness and make you believe you can have it? Your sister-in-law, your neighbor, your best friend on social media.

Isn't it true that everybody's lives seem [laughs] really happy, like way better than ours maybe? Or man, if we could just have this or go there or date that person or look like that or be that or buy that or start that business or have that job or have those three jobs or that job on the side, man, we would have happiness.

It's like people are holding up a map saying, "Here's the map to happiness.

This is the destination.

X marks the spot, and here's how to get it." Or maybe we see a lot of the X marks the spot, here's the destination.

How do I get there? How do I have a life like that? How do I become happy like they are? We have a bit of a problem, though, don't we? Because we can't seem to stop pursuing happiness.

We live in a culture and a continent and are surrounded by media that's continuing to tell us, "We can have it.

Over the last 24 to 48 hours, somebody probably asked you this question, "How are you?" Or maybe you asked the question to someone else, "How are you?" [laughs] Can I suggest that maybe the answer you didn't use or maybe you didn't hear very often or maybe at all was, "I'm so happy." [laughs] Like, maybe you heard, "Fine," "Good," "Okay," or, "Got a bit of a cold." But let me ask you this question.

When was the last time you were truly happy? Like, I don't just mean for a moment or for an hour or for an evening, but I mean for, like, weeks at a time, months at a time, maybe a few years, maybe a decade where you're like, "I was so happy." [laughs] Now, some of you are chuckling with cynicism, going, "Really? Decades [laughs] of feeling happy?" Or perhaps my question has reminded you of a season where you said you were.

You would've felt...

You look back and think, "I was so happy," but it's kinda slipped through your fingers, which is kind of odd, isn't it? Because we live in a culture that, in fact, a continent that is built on the pursuit of personal happiness.

In the United States, the Declaration of Independence, um, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Here in Canada, we associate happiness with rights and freedoms, the ability to pursue and be free to, uh, do or be or become or go after whatever it is that will make you happy.

So we live in a culture that is wired for happiness.

In fact, some of you, um, perhaps your parents or grandparents or maybe you came to this country, maybe you left another country that was, uh, not a good situation, a difficult situat- an undesirable situation, an unfortunate situation, so that you could build a life for yourself or your kids or your grandkids where they could be happy.

We live in a culture dedicated to the pursuit of happiness, and in fact, that is considered.

We often say, "Hey, whatever makes you happy," whether that's in career or relationships or money or purchases or life.

We live in a culture that is dedicated to the pursuit of happiness.

[laughs] But as Arthur Brooks, the social scientist and researcher from Harvard says, he says, "You know, Mick Jagger wasn't exactly right.

It's not true that I can't get no satisfaction.

The truth is I can't keep no satisfaction." Why does happiness seem so hard to find or at least so hard to keep? The truth is, we keep looking.

[laughs] We can't stop looking.

And here's what's crazy about it.

I used to work in media and advertising, and we used to be able to just blame the media for trying to make us unhappy with our lives and give us a promise of happiness.

"Hey, buy this hair product," you know, "Take this, uh, this trip to this beautiful place," or, "Try light beer," or, "Retire at 55 and you will be truly happy." It used to be just the media that, 'cause they were trying to get us to buy something.

[laughs] But you know now who's, who's trying to help you pursue happiness and make you believe you can have it? Your sister-in-law, your neighbor, your best friend on social media.

Isn't it true that everybody's lives seem [laughs] really happy, like way better than ours maybe? Or man, if we could just have this or go there or date that person or look like that or be that or buy that or start that business or have that job or have those three jobs or that job on the side, man, we would have happiness.

It's like people are holding up a map saying, "Here's the map to happiness.

This is the destination.

X marks the spot, and here's how to get it." Or maybe we see a lot of the X marks the spot, here's the destination.

How do I get there? How do I have a life like that? How do I become happy like they are? We have a bit of a problem, though, don't we? Because we can't seem to stop pursuing happiness.

We live in a culture and a continent and are surrounded by media that's continuing to tell us, "We can have it.