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What is happiness?
Are you happy? What would you need to be a happy person?
Some good read:
"A puzzling situation:
Billy won the lottery. A cool $25 million! He appeared to be a good man with a good character. Of the many types of people who might have won, his friends were happy it was Billy. But two years later he was arrested for drunk driving, resisting arrest, soliciting a prostitute, and having drugs in his car. The arrests continued over the next few years. The excitement of winning did not grow into a lifelong happiness.
Tom, a successful businessman, was a loner who worked long hours, saving and re-investing most of his profits. He was disliked for his independence and envied for his wealth. Yet his was a life full of contentment and happiness. Why does wealth bring happiness to some and misery to others?
If wealth is not a shortcut to happiness, what about sacrificing for others? Terry volunteers at the soup kitchen 6 days /week, 52 weeks a year, but hates it, hates her life, and has grown especially bitter towards the people she serves. Dora, an engineer, never does volunteer work. If she gives to charity, she does so very selectively and sparingly. Acquaintances envious of her success call her selfish. Yet Dora is very happy.
There are many people who we think should be happy but are not. (Billy the ``lucky" lottery winner and Terry the ``serious" volunteer.)
There are many people who we think should be miserable but are not. (Tom the ``loner" businessman and Dora the ``selfish" engineer.)"
Some people who seem to have nothing are very happy. Some people who seem to have everything are not.
yet some jet-setters seem happy while some moral crusaders have become miserable old grouches. Happiness seems very unpredictable, inconsistent, irrational.
What follows is an explanation as to the rational basis of happiness.
Are you happy? What would you need to be a happy person?
Some good read:
"A puzzling situation:
Billy won the lottery. A cool $25 million! He appeared to be a good man with a good character. Of the many types of people who might have won, his friends were happy it was Billy. But two years later he was arrested for drunk driving, resisting arrest, soliciting a prostitute, and having drugs in his car. The arrests continued over the next few years. The excitement of winning did not grow into a lifelong happiness.
Tom, a successful businessman, was a loner who worked long hours, saving and re-investing most of his profits. He was disliked for his independence and envied for his wealth. Yet his was a life full of contentment and happiness. Why does wealth bring happiness to some and misery to others?
If wealth is not a shortcut to happiness, what about sacrificing for others? Terry volunteers at the soup kitchen 6 days /week, 52 weeks a year, but hates it, hates her life, and has grown especially bitter towards the people she serves. Dora, an engineer, never does volunteer work. If she gives to charity, she does so very selectively and sparingly. Acquaintances envious of her success call her selfish. Yet Dora is very happy.
There are many people who we think should be happy but are not. (Billy the ``lucky" lottery winner and Terry the ``serious" volunteer.)
There are many people who we think should be miserable but are not. (Tom the ``loner" businessman and Dora the ``selfish" engineer.)"
Some people who seem to have nothing are very happy. Some people who seem to have everything are not.
yet some jet-setters seem happy while some moral crusaders have become miserable old grouches. Happiness seems very unpredictable, inconsistent, irrational.
What follows is an explanation as to the rational basis of happiness.
