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Bella Lawson

Mrs. Morales

Happiness Essay

09 January 2020

Happiness Essay

In today’s world, happiness is not seen as important as money, but it is. Although,

happiness as a goal in life can be unhealthy and detrimental. As Barry Schwartz said, “happiness

as a goal is a recipe for disaster.”

Many people seek happiness, almost like it is a material possession. Based on

observation, I have seen how this can hurt people. One of my friends, we’ll call him Jerry,

sought happiness almost everyday. Everyday, he would come up empty, and wonder why. Why

can’t he find happiness? As Herman Hesse wrote, “When someone seeks...his eyes only see the

thing that he seeks and is able to find nothing, to take in nothing.” To this day, Jerry still has not

been able to stop seeking happiness, and that has made him sad. To chase happiness is to chase a

rainbow, you will never catch it. Another thing that many people chase is money.

In countries like America and Japan, money and prosperity is seen as happiness. Based

on the documentary, Happy, working solely for money can drive you to death. Things like the

American dream are toxic. They place happiness as an end goal, and not a continuous or varying

thing, like it is. Happiness is never constant. There are short bursts of it, or more stable

sprinklings of it. It shouldn’t be a “goal” because that makes it into something attainable. You

have to let happiness come to you, and it will. The idea of happiness as money is just--wrong.
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Money will not make you happy, it will only make you comfortable physically. You have to find

things or ways that make you happy, and adjust your lifestyle so that it more easily comes. And

that is exactly what I did.

From late 2018 to early 2019, I suffered from a very long and hard depressive episode.

Many timmes I thought about suicide, just so I wouldn’t be as sad or as tired as I was. I was so

unhealthy, and just not good for me, but I couldn’t set my goal to be happy. People would say

why? You could be more focused and happier. But that is not true. Based on an article I read a

while back, by Davide Donghi, studies have shown that setting happiness as a goal makes people

more unhappy, and can even give them anxiety. The article, “Why happiness should not be your

end goal”, really shows why I could not set myself up like that. Instead of that as a goal, I

adjusted myself. So I wouldn’t be as sad, and I slowly brought more positivity into my life.

Happiness was not my goal, but healing was.

“Nowadays it’s not enough to be happy--if you can be even happier.” Seeing happiness

as a goal or something almost material, just ends badly. This conditions the mind to always want

more, and for it to always want more, and for it to be constant. Happiness is not constant.

Everyone has their highs and lows. Happiness as a goal in life detrimental to one's mental health,

and can even make more unhappy.