Do you ever feel happy with your achievements?

[Mike Dura]

I don't. Niether do friends I talk with. You do all the right things and achieve what culture tells you is "the good life" and yet you don't feel that happiness you expected. My friend who has a successful accounting firm and a child on the way tells me he feels as empty as a fart in the wind. I love bodybuilding but at the end of each "on season" I get ripped and at a higher weight than the season before, and I get the same empty feeling and I take a break almost with a kind of depressed, apathetic feeling. I wonder if this is a common experience or if it's just a "me thing." I wouldn't be surprised if it was a common experience though. In some Buddhist teachings it's thought that desire or drive and the pursuits based on these is bound to end in dissatisfaction and dissillusionment or worse, more suffering. The Buddhist solution to this is to give up drive because it ends in suffering. It's like the itch that if scratched only gets inflamed and the more you itch it the more you get consumed by "itch." Nietchze, on the other hand, seems to embrace this drive - it's something that should lead to it's realization and it's the passion that makes life worth living - in his way of thinking, it's a great value and one should "live dangerously" by it's influence. The way I live my life, I think I'm more a product of the latter view. The greatest part of bodybuilding for me is the pursuit and not the realization of a goal. It's the means that's the ends in and of itself. I like to feel that hunger and I love to feel pain and sweat. It's a very timeless experience but once you attain your goal you do feel flat because the chase comes to a temporary end. Here's to the chase!

[SMAN12b]

NO


I disagree with the Buddhists, saying giving up desire because it only ends in disatisfaction, is like saying we might as well give up on life cause it always ends in Death!!

[dedic8ed1]

Yeah I live for the chase aswell man but so I don't get bored with my self at the end of my acheivement the bar raises constantly.

[novastepp]

exactly. and i feel liek i have accomplished nothing in my life yet, so its depressing.
no career. (still in school)
no wife.
no children.

i work really hard for everything i have (grades, money, posessions, body) but i have nothing to show for it. it hits me sometimes...

[Kärnfysikern]

I seldomly feel true happines over strenght and physical achivements. The progress that makes me most happy when it comes to powerlifting is when I make unexpected strenght gains. The weights I expect and plan to lift doesnt give me much satisfaction when I acctualy lift them.
Its only when I go above my own expectations that I truly get satisfied and happy. Like when I pulled 200kg in the dead that I mentioned in your other thread. That was TOTALY unexpected and 20kg more than I thought I would be able to lift at that time.
Or when I was on my first cycle and gained 10kg in the squat in one week. The weight I did a heavy work set in one week was just warmup weight the week after. That was a true rush because I could hardly belive it was real.

Academic achivements satisfie me alot more though. Working on some very hard hand in problem or examn question until I go nuts and finaly realise the solution is the best feeling in the world. Or going to sleep frustrated after spending a entire day on a problem and wake up the next day with the solution obvious in the mind. No feeling in the world beats that.

I am a goal oriented person. The path to the goal is not nearly as important to me as the goal itself. Often I just find the path anoying and slow. I dont like my limitations and I dont like to work within my limitations. Often I refuse to admit my limitations and push myself over them in the hopes of reaching the goal quicker.

[Katelette81]

When I achieve or accomplish something it brings a momentary sense of happines and accomplishment.. but it always seems to end with the inevitable.."What next"?

I don't want to be like Al Bundy and his 4 touchdowns in one game... and they always say in my line of work (sales)... you're only as good as your last sale. And it's true, you have to keep pursuing things, keep chasing as you guys have mentioned... it's like you have to constantly have a challenge to keep you interested in life, which isn't a bad thing. But I agree.. I often feel as though I haven't anything tos how for my efforts, that I haven't gained in life... and funnily enough, time seems to be speeding up. Scary thread...

[thegodfather]

When I achieve or accomplish something it brings a momentary sense of happines and accomplishment.. but it always seems to end with the inevitable.."What next"?

I don't want to be like Al Bundy and his 4 touchdowns in one game... and they always say in my line of work (sales)... you're only as good as your last sale. And it's true, you have to keep pursuing things, keep chasing as you guys have mentioned... it's like you have to constantly have a challenge to keep you interested in life, which isn't a bad thing. But I agree.. I often feel as though I haven't anything tos how for my efforts, that I haven't gained in life... and funnily enough, time seems to be speeding up. Scary thread...

Being concious is a scary and torturous thing...