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The Pursuit of Happiness

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The Pursuit of Happiness

The pursuit of happiness varies from one person to the other. With or without money,

everyone leads an affordable life in pursuit of a better future which is at most characterized by

happiness and sadness. The pursuit of happiness pertains to the act of chasing dreams and goals

without giving up. It is distinguished by the determination to accomplish and survive without

surrendering to the prevailing setbacks. A determination needs one to invest all the available

resources and deal with the incoming hard times amicably.

Nevertheless, at the same time, financial determinations should never be confused with

the determination for happiness. There are different definitions of happiness according to the life

perception of each person. Some perceive life as a challenging assignment hard to unravel unless

fortune comes to your aid. Determination begins with the set of mind from childhood to

adulthood. Of course, children are less included in pursuing happiness since they depend on their

parents and guardians. The pursuit of happiness kicks in for adults and children old enough to

unravel various life challenges. There is a saying that some people become responsible because

life exposes its worst side first before they are old enough to handle the humongous challenging

situations.

Happiness is always with every person, and those pursuing it will always have a hard

time being happy. According to Tillmann (et al., 2019), happiness revolves around the little

achievements a person has made, not the ones far away that take a long time to get. Happiness is

a choice rather than taking it as something one can work on or chase. People say happiness is

found in richness, and poverty can never bring happiness. The state of being poor is resented and

viewed as doomed since the poor have limited opportunities, for example, to integrate with the

wealthy, have picnics, and travel to several recreation centres to enjoy drinks and different foods.
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To pursue happiness, one needs a lumpsum to maintain dignity and personality since not every

person will respect you, but people have considerable respect for money.

Nevertheless, some people work smart while others work harder to be rich or decadent.

No one is ever content with the current achievements. There are many mountains that a person

climbs in a bid to a more comfortable life, but the highest part of one mountain becomes the

lowest part of the other. This implies that happiness is found within oneself, not from a love of

material things.

Determination is one of the key factors to happiness. It takes different dimensions of how

each person differs from the other. Bond & Lang (2019) notes that determination is key to

prosperity but not happiness because you can be rich and unhappy. The pursuit of happiness is

determined by a small sort of self-appreciation rather than calculating several aspects of

amassing wealth to be happy. In other words, happiness is obtained from what one has rather

than what one aspires to have in future. What comes in future is an improved sort of stability.

Some have a different view that pursuing happiness takes a thorough determination

toward the set goals and dreams. They argue that happiness can only be attained through

determination alone. The pursuit of happiness involves sacrificing the resources that one has,

including time and oneself. There is no set value for determination, but it is measured with

achievements. However, too much determination is a miscalculation of strategies to attain

wealth. Determination can result in several intolerable consequences to people’s lives, including

deteriorated health; some even end up dying while trying. Determination is often confused with

consistency because determination is not a short-term investment but a long-term. The minor

achievements from a consistent effort are the key determinants of happiness. The pursuit of

happiness involves motivations from daily achievements and daily aspirations.

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Pursuing happiness is not a race or a process, as the phrase may imply. Satici B. & Satici

S (2022) note that happiness always continues to be elevated among those with a clear definition

of it and who lead stress-free lives. Simply pursuing happiness is a struggle to deal with all sorts

of intimidations that we face daily from our actions or mistreatment of other people. It is the will

of every person to lead a life full of happiness, but misinterpretations of its pursuit make the

whole perspective complex to the population. A person should only try by all means to have a

good day by living harmoniously with every person, and that is what the pursuit of happiness

takes. Some devalue peace, friendship and harmonious conduct. They argue that pursuing

happiness only involves transactions that bring more wealth rather than having a bad or a good

day. One must play cards daily to earn worthy cash or valuable goods. A person can transact

with others, whether making peace or not, since happiness is found in smooth transactions.

However, one can make great things in a day and be happy since the guilty of creating enemies

haunts perpetually. Thriving on daily transactions and planning calculations depends on the

ability to make peace with other people. Remember, people mainly experience a bad day when

one is not in peace or have grudges.

To summarize, the pursuit of happiness, in a word, can mean grit to life challenges.

Having dreams and consistency in the search for happiness is never enough, but one needs the

courage to face challenges humanly without offending others. Happiness requires one to lead a

courageous life but should never be confused with staging battles and conflicts and mistreating

other people. The pursuit takes inner courage, not external ones. Inner courage means one has to

endure and persevere without giving up till the goal or a dream is attained. Remember that

courage is wholly applied to the efforts and determination strategies, other than ways that would

undermine the relationship with other people. Well, some perceive that pursuing happiness takes
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courage to confront others. They argue that without courage, one will face several intimidations

and bullies from other people. The courage that determines happiness is dictated by how people

pay respect while transacting with them because if there is no respect, they expect to lose their

personality. It is contrary even to the dictates of nature. Courage is a forward inner gear to handle

things effectively despite their hardness or resistance. It simply sums up self-driven action.

Passably the pursuit of happiness mostly takes an economic dimension among various

people. According to Robertson (2020), when viewing it as social life, several underlying

dictates control the pursuit of happiness. The division of social classes in society has segregated

the poor, middle class and the wealthy. Everyone can have an equal chance of happiness since it

is never bought or provided by fellow human beings.

On the other hand, many believe the pursuit of happiness lies in endeavours to be part of

a high social class. They argue that the high social class has unlimited opportunities and choices

in this life. Nevertheless, they confuse the pursuit of happiness with a pursuit of financial

freedom and envy other peoples' lives blindly. Both pursuits of financial freedom and pursuit of

happiness are termed differently and are self-explanatory but complex in application. Some kids

become aware of the financial vulnerability of the families brought in. Thus, they tend to chase

financial freedom while holding pursuit of happiness. As mentioned earlier, the endeavours to a

happy life are within self-appreciation and contention. For instance, small kids never pursue

happiness since they have it with them. It is readily available at zero cost.

In conclusion, the pursuit of happiness is found within a person, not in financial freedom.

Others are determined for material gain to pursue happiness but obtain something different from

their expectations. Wealth is very cunning and has duped many people into doing evil so that

they can live happily, consuming their gains at ease. Little did the wealthy know that poor people
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have the most incredible wealth that is incomparable with money. The pursuit of happiness is

centred on personal peace, determined by how a person socializes and transacts with others. The

surviving people are happier than those who are rich. Determination is never wholly meant for

the struggle to achieve wealth, but it also means to lead a harmonious life with everyone. When

one is determined to lead a peaceful life, everything becomes amazingly simple. Disregarding

material gains as the cause of happiness does not mean they are nasty or a source of trouble.

Material gains make life easier when one gets all needs and wants at ease.
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References

Bond, T. N., & Lang, K. (2019). The sad truth about happiness scales. Journal of Political

Economy, 127(4), 1629-1640.

Robertson, R. (2020). Penguin UK. The enlightenment: The pursuit of happiness 1680-1790.

Satici, B., & Satici, S. A. (2022). Mindfulness and subjective happiness during the pandemic:

Longitudinal mediation effect of hope. Personality and Individual Differences, 197,

111781.

Tillmann, S., Button, B., Coen, S. E., & Gilliland, J. A. (2019). 'Nature makes people happy.

That is what it means:'children's definitions and perceptions of nature in rural

Northwestern Ontario. Children's Geographies, 17(6), 705-718.