I. Introduction
It is true that a balanced life is good. However, it is better to have a happy disposition because it makes people much more at peace with themselves. I have realized this thing when I think of my loved ones. I know how much they care for me and that make me feel contented with my life. If not for my loved ones or other people to whom God has directed me to love, to whom should I then share my life’s blessings (such as happiness)? Hence, whatever I do in my life, I make sure that I also think about their wellbeing to avoid making intentional mistakes (e.g., having poor school performance). For me, then, happiness is worth pursuing because I also make people whom I should care about happy as well.
II. Happiness is worth pursuing
Happiness, for me, is more than just a feeling of wellbeing and contentment. It is not simply about an emotion of joy that one feels inside him or her. It is a shared feeling. I have never experienced in my life that I was glad, joyful or contented for my own sake. Whenever I think of happiness, I see individuals who partake with my happiness. For instance, when I received a gift from someone who loves me, it is because he or she has seen something worthwhile in me. He or she invested his or her love, time, energy, and money because, once or several times in his or her life, I also made her feel valued.
There is a cliché where happiness is said to be not worth pursuing because individuals vary in their level of happiness, “do not understand what happiness is” and “that [they] have made no progress at all” concerning it (Csikszentmihalyi 608). Indeed, one person’s happiness is different from another individual’s perspective of happiness or that they are wanting more than they can have [of happiness]. For example, some individuals are already happy being happy-go-lucky (that is, cheerfully irresponsible) while others are not; consequently, those who pursue it, miss it. They would thus rather not enjoy the things that they supposedly have to delight on selfishly if not for their loved ones who would also benefit from their decisions or actions in life. For my part, then, I also agree with likeminded individuals or groups who would rather believe that happiness is worth pursuing even when people’s degrees of happiness are not the same or happiness seems unreachable because, at the very least, they are aiming for something worthwhile in their lives and for the lives of other people in this fleeting earthly life.
Because happiness is worth pursuing, I believe what Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi said in his article Happiness Revisited that “[p]eople who learn to control inner experience [] can come to being happy” (609). From my own experience, I have learned to control my inner feelings that is why I know when I should be happy or not. Although it may not always be the case, such as when I suddenly received a report that one my close relatives died in a car accident; I grieve but later in, still have time to contemplate that he or she has at least already rest in peace. Anyway, all people die anyway, only this or that way. Because of the ‘happy mindset’ that I have, I have also come to agree with Jean Chatzky, in his excerpt
The Difference: Get Happy, but Not Too Happy, who said that “[h]appy people are more likely to achieve their goals” because they have “a good frame of mind” (96).
Furthermore, it is also true to me that happiness is worth pursuing because I have learned to share my accomplishment and achievements in life with other people. I do not know of any person who is happy all by himself. One way or the other in his or her life, other individuals made him or her happy that is why he or she felt that life is worth living for. Just like Chatzky also mentioned: “We all measure ourselves, our surroundings, and our belongings to those of people around us” (110) and yet we little realize that it is our beloved ones that truly make us happy, if not happier. Moreover, Gareth Cook, in his article “Getting It All Done,” cannot be more than correct when he said that [to be happy] “Spend more time doing things for other people” (605).
III. Conclusion
When I think of pursuing happiness, I cannot help but think of other people. I know deep within me that happiness is worth pursuing and is the way the world ought to be. People should make it a goal in their lives to pursue happiness by investing much of their time and effort in it (that is, of making other people happy and in return make themselves happy too). Thus, I want to pursue happiness for its own sake because I find fulfillment in sharing it with the people whom I love and other individuals who know how it works in their lives. Should you ask me if happiness is really worth pursuing, let me count again the ways.
Works Cited
Chatzky, Jean. The Difference: Get Happy (But Not Too Happy). New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2009. Print.
Cook, Gareth. " Getting It All Done." Kennedy, X., D. Kennedy and M. Muth. The Bedford Guide for College Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. Print.
Copeland, Libby. "Is Facebook Making Us Sad?." Kennedy, X., D. Kennedy and M. Muth. The Bedford Guide for College Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. Print.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. "Happiness Revisited." Kennedy, X., D. Kennedy and M. Muth. The Bedford Guide for College Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. Print.
Saydman, Rivka. Finding a second life as a shelter volunteer. 31 October 2013. Web. 18 October 2014. <http://www.ocregister.com/articles/bunny-533488-dogs-ethel.html>.
