The Theories Of Happiness Revealed In The Film Happy

The documentary Happy presents many theories and ideas as to what causes people to be happy and what causes people to be unhappy. Some of these theories are contrary to what we commonly believe. The movie even said that things that we expect to bring us great happiness, like a big house, will only make us happy for a short while. One thing that we value and attribute to happiness is wealth. The movie, however, states that this is not true whatsoever. The reason for this is that a person will work to increase wealth. As their wealth increases, they buy things that make them happy. After some amount of time the person will adapt to their life style and will want more new things. This cycle will continue to repeat; thus the person will never be

happy because they are not satisfied with what they have. The movie also states that when it comes to happiness, the job and social status a person holds is only responsible for 10% of what makes them happy. The other 90% is due to genetics and the decisions that they make. These decisions can be things like exercising and performing community service which will increase happiness. They can also be things like buying a new car or new clothes. These decisions will make us happy for a short time, but once the novelty has worn off, we only want more. According to the movie things that are most likely to give us long sustained happiness are becoming part of something bigger than ourselves. This is why doing community service will increase one's happiness. Having money and material goods only leaves us wanting more.
Similar findings have been reported in Forbes’ article “When Money Doesn't Equal Happiness.” In the article the author Brock Blake, CEO of a company called Lendio, tells the lesson that he learned from the book Delivering Happiness.

This book is written by a multi-millionaire, Tony Hsieh, who made his fortune by selling his company to Microsoft. Blake states the he learned from the book that there are two different definitions to the word success. One definition is, “the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted” (Blake). The second definition is “the gaining of fame or prosperity” (Blake). Blake says that too many people get caught up thinking that being successful only means that you have gained financial prosperity. However, Blake continues to explain that this forces people to lose sight of what actually makes them happy. A short time after Hsieh made his 265 million dollar deal with Microsoft, he still didn't feel happy. He then took some time to think about the moments he was happiest. He realized that not one of those times had involved money. After reading this, Blake says that he no longer chases money around like he used to. While he still works during the week, Blake spends the time he is not at work doing what he loves. He says that there are more important things in life than working and making money, things like catching up with family and friends or simply spending time relaxing

outside.