The Happiness of Pursuit: Find the Quest that will Bring Purpose to Your Life

It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over. —PAULO COELHO

The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

Another way to think of it is this: Regret is what you should fear the most. If something is going to keep you awake at night, let it be the fear of not following your dream. Be afraid of settling.

Another way to consider a big goal is to start from the end point and plan backward. The end point is your final destination—whatever you’re trying to accomplish or achieve.

The lesson, as he explains it: “If I fail more than you do, I win. Built into this notion is the ability to keep playing. If you get to keep playing, sooner or later you’re gonna make it succeed. The people who lose are the ones who don’t fail at all, or the ones who fail so big they don’t get to play again.”

Embracing new things often requires us to embrace our fears, however trivial they may seem. You deal with fear not by pretending it doesn’t exist, but by refusing to give it decision-making authority. When you venture to new lands for the first time, it is a big deal.

A quest requires sacrifice of some kind. There

Branching out beyond travel, the categories of learning, documenting, and athleticism were also fairly self-explanatory.

Why should you consider a quest? Because your life is good, but you don’t feel completely fulfilled. You long for a challenge that requires you to develop new muscles and acquire new skills, and if you’re willing to work for it, you can find it . . . or perhaps even better, you can create it for yourself.

Seth has hundreds of thousands of fans and at least a few notable critics, but there’s one thing about him that everyone agrees on: The man is prolific. According to him, he reads, researches, and writes an average of fifteen hours a day. He publishes a post on his blog every single day, no exceptions.19