Award-winning English author Neil Gaiman set out to write a short story for his daughter’s 18th birthday. But after two years, he only had three pages to show for his efforts. Then, over the course of three stressful days, he found a healthy distraction from the stress by diving into the story — and he found an ending, around 20 pages later. This hopeful sentiment was weaved into Gaiman’s reflection on the burst of creativity that produced his story “Sunbird.” Besides reminding people that they still have agency during life’s most challenging times, Gaiman explains that making art forges connections if the work is shared. Perhaps that’s why he has also written novels, graphic novels, comics, journalism, screenplays, and poetry. 

Paulo Coelho’s novel “The Alchemist” follows a young Andalusian shepherd on a journey to the Egyptian pyramids, where he believes he will find hidden treasure. These words are spoken by an old wise woman who warns him to not get carried away. Indeed, the shepherd sees and experiences many things on his journey, but the ones that affect him most are the simplest: falling in love, meeting a mentor, and discovering what home means to him. Coelho’s story serves as a lesson to us not to discount the smaller or less elaborate wonders of life: The fulfillment we get from them may surprise us.

Many wise leaders have noted that chasing happiness as our primary goal seldom results in a happy life, a notion summed up nicely in this quote from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She went on to note that, “Paradoxically, the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively… For what keeps our interest in life and makes us look forward to tomorrow is giving pleasure to other people.” In other words, if you pursue a life of purpose and meaning, you don't have to find happiness; it will find you.