“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things”: Einstein’s advice has one big problem
The quote attributed to the scientist sounds like a perfect formula for finding happiness.
One of the most well-known quotes attributed to Albert Einstein says: “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” It was shared by his friend and collaborator, mathematician Ernst Straus, and over time, it became one of those reflections that seems to have an answer for almost everything when it comes to finding a happier life.
Einstein behind the quote
Albert Einstein was born in 1879 and died in 1955 . The German physicist developed some of the most important scientific ideas of the 20th century, including the theory of relativity, and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect .
His life was also shaped by political and social events. As the Nazis rose to power, he left Germany and later settled in the United States, where he continued his academic and scientific work.
So, why does his advice have one big problem despite all of this?
Because a goal can excite you, give you something to look forward to and make you feel like you are moving toward something you truly want . Having a goal, working toward it and enjoying the journey is not a bad thing.
The problem begins when that goal stops being something we want to achieve and becomes a condition for feeling good: I’ll be happy when I get this or when I finally have that. Suddenly, what we have today no longer feels like enough because all our attention is focused on what has not arrived yet .
And that is where the quote can take us somewhere very different from what it seems to suggest. Because if we stop placing our happiness in a person or something we have and instead place it entirely in a goal, we are simply changing where we put that responsibility.
Maybe the answer is not choosing between people, things or goals. Maybe it lies somewhere else: learning to enjoy the things we want without turning them into the condition we need in order to feel happy .
