Aristotle said, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” It makes sense for everyone to spend some time thinking about happiness. Common questions are what is happiness? How can happiness be achieved? Am I happy?

Interestingly while the subject of happiness does arise from time to time in people’s minds, it is quickly replaced by thoughts about more concrete matters. The more concrete matters are typically tasks related to family, work and recreation. One might spend a lifetime pursuing family closeness, money, fame or material possessions without questioning the real reason one pursues these goals.

It turns out that happiness is the ultimate reason why people pursue any goal. People instinctually believe that the accomplishment of certain goals will make them happy. Often goal accomplishment does increase one’s level of happiness, but why not pursue happiness directly? Why use goal attainment as a surrogate for obtaining happiness?

What can you do to pursue happiness directly? The first step on this journey is to recognize that lasting happiness comes from within. Happiness achieved through the accomplishment of external goals (no matter how great) is temporary.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 8:39 am and is filed under Happiness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.