Nicely put. Overall I agree, but I've also been hearing arguments about -happiness- being slightly overrated and how living a -meaningful- existence was much more important to our overall satisfaction. I guess there's some overlap and it's not stricly either or, but we all need a purpose of sorts. Something to crawl towards to.

To be clear, there's nothing wrong with having goals as such, but then there's the risk of developing some kind of psychological dependency. As in making that pursuit the foundation of the Jenga tower you call life. Which is also is fine, for instance in terms of intentional self-scarifice. Like making people smile, as you said. Compared to some kind of hedonistic pursuit of fame and fortune. That's when accomplishments might turn into an existential crisis. Maybe one that manifests itself in the form of a yellow Porsche.

Obviously you could always find new goals, but seems like those often just turn into perversions of your original goal. Like making MORE money. Or not just winning the game but making the others LOSE.

In terms of my own pursuits I'm admittedly very selfish, albeit less in the materialistic sense. Just someone looking for some unarticulated kind of who knows what that expresses itself like that desire to write. Yet, that's more of a symptom rather than the illness itself. If I could wish for anything it would be tranquility. Or maybe finding meaning in ordinary existence and the ability to treat life like a dance, or a jam session, rather than American Football.