Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is one of the most famous phrases known to Americans.  Most will immediately recognize it as coming from the United States Declaration of Independence.  The final draft of the Declaration, which was adopted on July 4, 1776, reads,

“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I find it interesting that those three rights are bundled together.  What would one of those be without the other?  Everybody on Earth has Life, but may not have Liberty and may not have a choice to pursue happiness by their own individual definition.  Some may even have Life and Liberty, but aren’t given the choice to pursue their dreams.  What makes the United States of America great?  The inclusion of all three, bundled together in the greatest blend ever created.  Life and Liberty are not complete without the right to pursue happiness!  Nobody can tell us how to do this!  Only YOU can tell yourself what makes you happy.  I’m not talking about a limited time only happiness, but I’m talking about a forever happiness…one that doesn’t go away.  For some people, that’s spending time traveling the world, seeing new cultures and taking the good from all of them.  For others, it’s in the neighborhood they grew up in, helping improve the community that raised him/her.  For another, it may be to simply help others with their pursuit of happiness.

If you have ever seen The Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith, then you’re probably familiar with the movie clip below.  However, if you have not, the background is that the little kid and his dad (Will Smith) are up shooting hoops and the kid pretends like he’s in the NBA and is going to go pro in the future and Will Smith basically tells him that he was never good at it and since he’s his kid, he probably shouldn’t set his sights on that either.  The kid is rejected, his dreams are crushed and he sulks over and puts the ball away…then this happens:

Imagine the difference in what the kid sees in his future.  “People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it.”  How often is this true in our lives?  We have a dream, somebody, even sometimes somebody close, tells us that we can’t do it…that it’s impossible, that we should play it safe, etc.  I don’t care how close somebody is to you, but they should NOT crush your dreams!  The power of your dreams lies within your own belief that you can accomplish them, not in what other people think.  Please don’t let others limitations put a ceiling on what you can or cannot do.

If you want something in life, go get it.  Period.