What is Happiness?
People travel through life with what seems like a single goal: to be happy. This may seem like a selfish way to live, however this lone objective is the motivation behind nearly all actions. Even seemingly selfless deeds make people feel better about themselves. That warm feeling experienced while doing charitable acts can be described as happiness. But what is authentic happiness? There is an endless possibility of answers to this question, and man seems to be always searching for the solution. Although one may reach his or her goals, there is always still something one strives for in order to be happy. In the book Stumbling on Happiness, Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert takes the reader through the human mind and helps people to understand why happiness seems to have no concrete definition and eludes many. Happiness is a vague term that means different things to everybody largely because of how flawed imagination is while predicting the future and how past events dictate how individuals view the present.
The imagination’s incorrect view of the future causes happiness to be different for everybody. Man perceives the future in an improper manner, and with this perception man makes decisions now that he believes will make him happy later on in his life. People will forgo immediate happiness for future yield. For example, skipping a delicious dessert so one can be happy fitting into a pair of jeans later.
The Essay on What Make People Happy
For me there are many things that can make people happy in the world. Making someone happy is a matter of being sensitive to one’s needs. Many pursue the common approach of knowing what the other wants in order to bring them happiness, but the truth however is that we don’t need to know what they want. Instead, we should be observant to the delicate of their aspirations. An effective method to ...
But what we want now may not be what we want later. A freshmen may enter college pretty certain of what he or she wants to study, major in, and do with his or her life. However so much can happen in four years to change that freshmen’s plans. A freshmen self and a senior self are two totally different people with totally different dreams and aspirations. How can that be? Daniel Gilbert stresses how flawed the imagination is when predicting the future. The author notes that 12 percent of our daily thoughts are about the future (Gilbert, 2006, p.17.) We spend so much time thinking about the future because we imagine the future being better than today. “When people find it easy to imagine an event, they overestimate the likelihood that it will actually occur” (Gilbert, 2006, p.19.) Gilbert explains that this causes us to be overoptimistic about our futures and thus changes what we do in order to be happy. Young people imagine traveling the world, starting a successful business or becoming a star. Later on in one’s life they may realize that they do not have the funds to travel the world, the talent to become a star, or even the desire to start their own business.
Perhaps they come to the conclusion that they would be happier starting a family or writing a book. Humans have an undeniable want to control. The reason somebody imagines the future is so they can do something about it (Gilbert, 2006, p. 21.) We imagine a future better than today so we can take the actions necessary to get to the better tomorrow. I imagined college being a whole lot better than high school. The freedom and the separation from my parents was something I wanted. So in order to get here I studied hard in high school, strove for a good ACT score, and applied to universities. The actions I took in high school were in order to control the future. Gilbert answers the question of “Why should we want to control our futures?” “It feels good to do so-period. Impact is rewarding. Mattering makes us happy. The act of steering one’s boat down the river of time is a source of pleasure, regardless of one’s port of call” (Gilbert, 2006, p.24.) We all attempt to imagine the future so we may control it and be happy in it. However our view of the future is skewed by optimism, and we honestly all have no idea what will make us happy in the future.
The Essay on Homelessness In America People Experiencing Homeless
Homelessness in America Here in Tahoe, we are lucky enough to experience a great quality of life, and only a few have to face the horrible life of poverty and homelessness. However, nationwide, even right outside the basin, homelessness is a growing epidemic across the country. There are many ways one can become homeless; for the most part poverty. There are also different concentrations of ...
All the experiences people have had throughout their lives shape the way the view the present and thus affects what really makes them happy. No two people go throughout life experiencing the exact same things in the exact same order. From birth until death every event, no matter how small, changes the way we assess the now. After somebody eats the greatest, tastiest cheeseburger ever, every other cheeseburger after that just will not seem as great. People subconsciously and consciously compare all experiences to the past. Every rock concert gone to is then compared to the ones that came before it. Gilbert (2003) states, “Studies demonstrate that once we have an experience, we cannot simply set it aside and see the world as we would have seen it had the experience never happened” (p. 53).
This kind of sucks. A person can never go back to the way they felt on their first roller coaster, or when they tried their first ice cream cone. One will remember their past vacation to Hawaii as being extremely better than their current trip to Nebraska. However somebody who has never been on a vacation may think that this trip to Nebraska is just simply wonderful and full of excitement.
Gilbert (2006) describes this as “Experience stretching,” and goes on to explain how people can really be happy in one situation but later on, after further experiences, are not as happy in the same situation (p. 55).
This fact may be the main reason why happiness differs between all people. When I first started wrestling, I was so ecstatic just to win a match. Although I am still pleased with winning matches, it is nowhere near as exciting as it once was. Defeating a top-ranked opponent or winning a tournament gives me the same emotions as winning a single match once did. Perhaps happiness is like a drug in a sense. The more we experience joy and bliss the more it takes for us to experience those emotions at the same intensity.
All in all, there is no way to provide a single, universal definition for authentic happiness. People’s imperfect predictions and views on the future cause them to make decisions and act on these predictions. It is a human condition to want to control the future, and the imagination allows one to think they can do that. However one’s future self and present self are almost two completely different people. Conversely, the past plays a huge role in a person’s happiness as well. All of the events in a person’s life create a lens in which he or she views the present. Past experiences skew the assessment of the present and make it different for everybody. Happiness is never the same for anybody, and it may take a lifetime of searching for it to realize what it really is.
The Essay on Wouldn T Make Sense Time Present Past
LOCK ON ID 2) Because people are constantly changing, there must exist a difference in between a person. We are always making decisions in our life so in doing so, we become a different person each time. Whatever happens in your life, you are still the same person. As put, you are what you can remember. This is made clear when he mentions For it is by the consciousness it has of its present ...
