Life is an expedition to find happiness and success and when you think about it, it’s evident that success is simply a subset of happiness.

You can achieve outstanding professional success, but without joy, all those plaques and pats are meaningless. ‘The pursuit of happiness’ as Abraham Lincoln put it, is more important.

To borrow the words of another great, Helen Keller [since she puts it so eloquently]:

True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

When I joined Inara, I thought it’d be a step towards personal and professional success.  I could reach my potential as a writer. I had no idea of the community I was stepping into.

What Inara offered me, on a daily basis, was something much more valuable: joy. All of us have found something profound – we have found a purpose and a sense of belonging – while handing out care packs to labourers, collecting clothes for refugees, or simply cheering someone up when they’ve been down.

I think there’s a lot to say about fighting for good when skepticism is recommended. While the jury is still out on the connection between altruism and happiness [which causes which?], as noted in this Forbes article, a study by Harvard revealed:

Everyone is motivated by a blend of

1. Doing good for others,

2. Doing things they are good at,

3. Doing good for me.

At Inara, we have sworn to do good for others and to become a beacon for those lost in the darkness.

Where do/will you find happiness?

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