Pursuit of happiness...

I have been looking for a job since August with little luck.  The jobs I've been applying for aren't necessarily things I want to do nor do they lead up to things I want to do for the rest of my life.  Perhaps it's the wrong attitude but why am I seeking something I don't enjoy?  Even for the pursuit of money, why can't it be doing something that makes me happy?

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." 

~ Confucius 

It is one of those simple but important life questions:

What makes you happy?

Why?

So do it.

There are some passages in Thomas Sterner's 'The Practicing Mind' and Marc Chernoff's '9 Things You Do NOT Need to Be Happy' that help me think through this.  

"Ultimately, your greatest achievements are moments in time when what you're doing allows you to see how wonderful your life already is."

"My real joy was found in my ability to learn and to experience my growth, moment by moment."

"Great challenges make life interesting; overcoming them makes life meaningful. You won’t enjoy your life if you don’t enjoy your challenges."

"I had accomplished everything...and yet I didn't feel any different. I didn't feel any happier with my music or any better as a musician...I became aware that there was no point of musical excellence out there that would free me from the feeling that I  needed to get better. I understood that there was no point I could reach where I would feel that I had finally done it, that I was as good as I needed to be, and that there was no need to improve because I had arrived at my goal."

"Don’t let life slip by without being aware of it. Life works in a strange way: You want something and you work and wait and work and wait, and feel like it’s taking forever to come. Then it happens and it’s over and all you want to do is relive all the great memories you made along the way. 

Happiness is the journey. Open your eyes. Don’t miss it."

"You'll never run out of room to grow. Where you are right now is just where you should be, given the amount of effort you expended."

For the longest time I was hoping to find a job and earn enough money so I could live and work in Australia for a year or two.  Afterwards I would continue traveling from where I left off in Asia.  The ideal grows uncomfortably the longer I wait.  I need to pursuit another happiness.