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Happiness in the future essay
Happiness in the future essay
Happiness in the future essay
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For a reason quite unknown, people have an inclination to obtain some sort of happiness. This happiness is something people think about just about everyday. The decisions we make, the thoughts we think; they all pertain to this desire of being happy sometime in the near or far future. But focusing on future happiness is more detrimental to our present lives than beneficial. Some people however disagree and may argue that focusing on the future motivates one to make positive present day decisions that will benefit them in the long run. Hypothetically speaking let us examine a man who has a love for cupcakes and every time he eats a cupcake, he becomes happy. He has ten cupcakes lined up in front of him. He can either eat the ten cupcakes and …show more content…
Only thinking about what is to happen in the future can become a distraction to us. If we keep thinking that we will be happy in the long run, we will neglect what is really happening to us in the present and remain stagnant until one day our future happiness finally supersedes our present state. But in essence, if we are so concerned with our future happiness, once we reach that so called future, what happens next? Are we actually happy? More than likely the answer is no because when we finally reach what was once the distant future, it becomes the present, and then we are ultimately discontent again until we reach another future. It is a vicious cycle that never ends. Haidt deals greatly with this concept, coining it “the progress principle.” We work every single day of our lives in hopes to achieve something great in the near or far future. “Then [we] succeed, and if [we’re] lucky [we] get an hour, maybe a day, of euphoria…my first thought is seldom ‘Hooray! Fantastic!’ it is ‘Okay, what do I have to do now?’” (Haidt, 83.) When that happy ending is not obtained in the near future people feel confused, and sometimes even devastated, perhaps trapped within despair. This state of discontent illustrates the “dark side” of happiness as we see many people diagnosed with clinical depression, physically unable to achieve happiness. These patients are subconsciously burdened with the pressure …show more content…
There is this conceptual view that most individuals, if not all, deserve an optimal predestined future. The entertainment industry is partially to blame for this. “Human beings in every culture are fascinated by stories” (Haidt 142.) This fallacy is a daily occurrence causing us to sugar coat our realities and blind us from the obstacles that balance our achievements. The media uses movies to establish a “real world” plot that always seems to end with a “happily ever after.” A cheesy movie such as Valentines Day (2010) serves as a typical situation where couples break up and make up, waiting for their special someone to sweep them off their feet and ultimately fall in love all because the setting is on Valentines Day. Movies like 500 Days of Summer (2009) “surprise” the audience with what they think will be a rekindled flame between Summer and Tom, and when that does not happen, we are then reassured Tom will find a new woman who makes him even happier, Autumn. Despite the fact that this idealistic depiction of life does include a series of unfortunate events, the positive ending leads society to believe that no matter what we will eventually be happy. So we allow ourselves to remain in a state of discontent and misery unwilling to try to mend the situation, but rather just wait in present time for our happy ending to come in the future. The time invested in future
Society pressure themselves to be happy; they often ask questions like, “does that make you happy?” What they fail to understand is that sometimes doing the right thing, for the moment, might not seem to bring happiness in one’s life, but after trekking the ups and downs of life, happiness might be waiting on the other side. From time to time people also judge good and bad through happiness. “If something is good, we feel good. If something is
However, happiness also takes into account a wide range of other aspects of our lives, including our thoughts and actions, and even genetics. Therefore, happiness should be defined as the amalgamation of how we think and act, and how we interpret our experiences as positive or negative. What this means is that in order to become happier, we must simply force ourselves to become more optimistic. This is easier said than done, however. In order to have a noticeable increase in happiness, people must be willing to make lifestyle changes in addition to changing their mindset. However, the difference between optimism and delusion is a fine line, so people must be cautious to not exaggerate the positive parts of an experience or become overly optimistic. If we practice seeking out the positive views of our circumstances, with time we will find ourselves happier than
The philosopher Aristotle once wrote, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” This famous quote compels people to question the significance of their joy, and whether it truly represents purposeful lives they want to live. Ray Bradbury, a contemporary author, also tackles this question in his book, Fahrenheit 451, which deals heavily with society's view of happiness in the future. Through several main characters, Bradbury portrays the two branches of happiness: one as a lifeless path, heading nowhere, seeking no worry, while the other embraces pure human experience intertwined together to reveal truth and knowledge.
There have been philosophers that have been philosophizing for thousands of years. Discovering new ideas and different ways to think about things. Thinking in new, creative ways is an inevitable future that humanity will face unless stagnancy in the development of technology and morality occurs. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World displays this possibility incredibly and makes stagnancy look unappealing. With stagnancy and lack of new and imaginative thoughts, however, complete happiness seems like a less menacing task than before. Nobody questions why certain luxuries are not available. The whole world can be content. Why would this not be favorable for humanity? Happiness is hindered greatly by the ability to think.
People are biases about every aspect of their life. From religion, to the people they date, to the type of toothpaste they use, people already have a preset judgement about things because of experiences in their past. In the book Stumbling on Happiness, author Daniel Gilbert says the ability to think about our future is what separates humans from other animals. Gilbert suggests that our brains fall victim to a wide range of biases that cause our predictions of the future to be inaccurate. Due to these mental errors it is remarkably difficult to predict what will actually happen and what will make us happy.
Happiness is a feeling that everyone tries to accomplish, yet some people sometimes only capture portions of it. In Brian Doyle essay, “Irreconcilable Dissonance,” he explains that divorce is becoming common among many couples today. Most couples are putting less effort into making a relationship/marriage work. There are many couples who get married, and most of them know that if the marriage does not work that divorce is always an option. With divorce in their back of their mind they lack the true meaning of having a happy marriage. In Eduardo Porter essay, “What Is Happiness,” Porter states that happiness is determined by people’s qualities in their life. People who experience a positive viewpoint on life and about others are overall to
People may believe it is relatively easy to predict what would make them happiest in certain circumstances. It should be a simple task given that one spends their whole life learning what makes them happy. However, in the essay, “Immune to Reality,” Daniel Gilbert demonstrates that people often fail to correctly predict one’s own happiness. Daniel Gilbert gives various examples expressing when people make incorrect predictions about their life and how that affects their knowledge, understanding, and behaviors. That is because the unconscious mind picks up factors that influence a person’s happiness, knowledge, and understanding. These influences cause the human mind to quickly produce inaccurate reasons for why they do what they do.
Ashley Janowiak Human Happiness and External goods Happiness is a goal every human pursues, yet the ways in which it is pursued differs amongst people. Some believe prosperity will bring them happiness. Others believe material, power, fame, success, or love will bring them happiness. No matter what one believes is the right way to conquer this goal, every person will take their own unique path in an attempt to find it. But what is happiness like?
The concept of happiness has been argued for thousands of years, and will probably be argued for thousands more. Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz, a 20th century Polish philosopher, wrote an interesting paper, adding to the age-old debate, called, Happiness and Time. This essay correctly claims that for one to look at happiness one must also be aware of its relation to time.
We see images in movies or in TV shows that are appealing. We think that with money, all of our tribulations will wash away. That’s why people go to work, buy lottery tickets, or even gamble. We want what society has told us, we want our whole lives and we are not fully satisfied with life until we achieve these goals. Society builds this perfect image in our heads of what happiness is supposed to look like, and today’s modern technologies and our upbringings are significantly influenced by it.
Gertner explains that affective forecasting, miswanting, and hot and cold states can really throw us off track in our search for true happiness. He uses many examples and experiment results from credible sources to prove his point. After reading Gertner's essay, we are left with this: The things that we think will make us happy rarely do. These decisions or investments are usually unimportant and become normal and boring for us. After all of our disappointments, we are left still wondering if true happiness can ever really be reached.
Happiness is a feeling that humans naturally desire. Without it, one feels incomplete. In this generation, happiness has taken on a definition by how we are presented to one another. It is measured by how much money we have, how famous we are, or the things we possess. When in reality, none of these things guarantee a happy life. Happiness is something that cannot be bought with money, but rather, it must be found, earned, sought after. Each and every one of us has our own list of things that we consider to make us happy. However, happiness shines brightest through the relationships we create, and the goals we make for ourselves to strive after. Along with these two essential sources, we then can mix and match those things in life that we enjoy to create our own unique formula for happiness.
Just about every important event in life is presented as a milestone on the road to happiness. Childhood is supposed to be a happy time where the child is protected and kept from fear and danger. Getting one’s driver’s license is seen as a step toward that child’s independence, his freedom, his happiness. Graduating from high school and going to college or entering the work force is another step toward independence, freedom, and happiness. Getting married is usually done because the person one chooses as a spouse makes them happy. Having children makes a person happy usually, hopefully. The career one chooses makes one happy hopefully, or at least it makes one flush with cash if not happy, perhaps rich is the next best thing. Looking forward to retiring after wor...
When we are young children, we are introduced to the concept of "living happily ever after". This is a fairy-tale emotional state of absolute happiness, where nothing really happens, and nothing even seems to matter. It is a state of feeling good all the time. In fairy tales, this feeling is usually found in fulfilling marriages, royal castles, singing birds and laughing children. In real life, an even-keeled mood is more psychologically healthy than a mood in which you frequently achieve great heights of happiness. Furthermore, when you ask people what makes their lives worth living, they rarely mention their mood. They are more likely to talk about what they find meaningful, such as their work or relationships. Research suggests that if you focus too much on trying to feel good all the time, you’ll actually undermine your ability to ever feel good because no amount of feeling good will be satisfying to you. If feeling good all the time were the only requirement for happiness, then a person who uses cocaine every day would be extremely happy. In our endless struggle for more money, more love and more security, we have forgotten the most fundamental fact: happiness is not caused by possessions or social positions, and can in fact be experienced in any daily activity. We have made happiness a utopia: expensive, complicated, and unreachable.
Happiness, what is it, and why do we strive to achieve it so persistently? Happiness in some points of view is portrayed as the state that is derived from self-awareness of a benefiting action or moment taking place. What of the moments that are not beneficial? Can a person still find moments of happiness and success in discord, a little glimmer of light shining from the deep recesses of our own consciousness? Plucking it from a mere moment, achieved from money, or is it so much more, happiness is the precipice that all strive to gain to better perceive their success. As a person lives, they are in a constant struggle to be happy. For instance, even the United States Constitution makes reference to the idea that every person has the inalienable right to pursue happiness. This was the resulting outcome of the enlightenment from France, spilling out into the rest of the world from 1650 through 1800. This revolutionized the idea that every single person has the inalienable right to happiness or in different views the right to succeed. As to how one peruses or conjures their happiness that is an entirely different concept and completely up to their preferred preference, but it is something that a person needs to find on their own for true success.