I would feel remiss if I did not reiterate what happiness is. While I have discussed the outline for happiness and what it is not, I think that more clarification is needed. Previously I have described happiness as the pursuit of meaning accompanied by virtuous pleasure. As I have demonstrated, popular belief is that happiness is the exact opposite. Hollywood and the media often argue implicitly and explicitly that happiness is nothing more than the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure in its plethora of variations.
Thus the common idea of happiness is envisioned as having a life with the least amount of pain, the least amount of troubles, the most pleasure, and the most material possessions. While all of these things can be nice up to a point, we all know, deep down that they do not produce long lasting or fulfilling experiences of happiness. In other words we can often confuse pleasure with happiness.
As I have mentioned, I am not advocating for asceticism, the complete withdrawal form the world and its sensual pleasures, rather I am arguing that lasting happiness is achieved through finding meaning and purpose in life. Purpose is living our lives in accordance with our callings and values.
This means that we can be happy even when we don’t feel pleasure. We can be sick, poor, stressed or sad and still be happy. Yes, even sad. If we have purpose we can still be happy in the hard and easy times. Happiness is not an emotional state. Happiness is a state of purpose that transcends the physical and spills over into the spiritual.
The pleasure that we experience from practicing a meaningful and purposeful life leads to the ultimate expression of happiness; joy. Joy is the product of meaning.
True happiness is not selfish. Many of the happiness experts are implicitly asking us to be selfish. While I agree with the principle that we cannot serve water from an empty well, we must not turn so inward as to miss the chance for selfless happiness.
If our life’s purpose is not aligned with something bigger than ourselves, we are unlikely to achieve happiness or joy.
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