What are you chasing in life: Happiness or Meaning ?
We always chase for happiness, isn't it? People often pursue the paths or ways to be happy, thinking that happiness is the result of success. I used to think the same way that being happy is the greatest way to thank our life that gave us the opportunity to deal with the things which make us happy. However, there is something we need to understand, which is leading a meaningful life.
I accidentally looked at the article today about being happy and being meaningful. I never thought there would be much better thinking towards pursuing a meaningful life.
The people who tried to feel happy ended up unhappier after the experiment than those who listened without trying to boost their mood. In another recent study, Iris Mauss of Berkeley and her colleagues found that people who highly value happiness — as measured by their endorsement of statements like “Feeling happy is very important to me” — reported feeling lonelier on a daily basis, as assessed in diary entries over two weeks. By contrast, the pursuit of meaning leads to a deeper and more lasting form of well-being. Source
Even this happened to me when I was young. I was chasing for a victory in a test that offers me great career options. Unfortunately, I could not crack that even after multiple attempts. I was worried and devastated again and again when I see the score online. Now, I understood that I learned a colossal amount of knowledge through preparing for tests. I was better than I was before the tests. So there is a meaning of studying right. It does help me in other ways though.
When people say their lives are meaningful, it’s because they feel their lives have purpose, coherence, and worth Source
You might be wondering why I am saying meaning and happiness are different. Of course, it is different as the main difference here is while happiness stands only for few minutes or hours, meaning, on the other hand, be with you forever. It is conspicuously seen that success or an ideal job would never bring you meaning, yet it propounds you happiness.
I think chasing happiness would lead you to depression even more. I am not saying that you should not create goals or dreams. But I believe, you have already noticed in your life that the more you chase for happiness, the more you suffer. Rather chase for meaning. Study to get informed and get knowledgeable but not for marks or scores. This will eventually lead you to the better career.
According to psychologists, the suicide rate is dramatically augmenting over the specific period of time. This happens when one chose to chase happiness. Being meaningful make the people more resilient and stronger as they know they are not expecting certain results and they know that how their future is going to be progressed.
I would want my happy to be meaningful, or uh significant! Fake happy can be the most creepiest feeling out there.
I agree that they're two different things but I also believe that you really can't have one with out the other. If you have a happy life, odds are you have a meaning and a purpose, your'e not just wondering around hugging trees. And if you have a meaningful life, in your eyes, (like taking care of grandchildren, or teaching our youth) you're going to be happy. It's really all about perspective and I feel like that's why so many people today are unhappy.
A majority of people are depressed because their perspectives are messed up. They see something someone has and they think that the world owes them that.
Very nice post
Upvoted. I'll be resteeming this now :)
Most of the times I try to find both , no luck :(.
like they say
really great post
I grew up around negative people, and a long time ago I learned that living with negative thinking only breeds misery. All they do is complain, and they do nothing to improve their situation. This seems to be the case with every negative person I have ever known. They complain, and do nothing to improve their situation.
An installer I work with has kind of a surfer dude mentality, and he is easily the happiest person I ever met. This guy lets everything go, no problems, because it's not worth it.
I find it is so much more calming to live in the now, because today could very well be the last day of the rest of your life. I nearly lost my wife last year to a heart issue. Now we try to live each day as if this is it.
I try to cherish every moment I spend with my kids, even when they drive me bananas, because you never know when it will be over.
I always go back to what my mom told me when I was little, "No matter how bad you think you have it, there is someone out there who has it was worse."
Your analysis is logical and easy to comprehend. But the situation might not exactly be an either or case. This is so because happiness can co-exist in a meaningful life. Alternatively, a life of meaning could engender happiness.
The real issue, in my humble view, probably is which comes first, meaning or happiness? Even in this case, there really can't be a hard and fast rule. A man who aspire to lead a meaningful life will certainly be happy when he attains that ambition. In the same vein, another person may derive his happiness from the meaningful life he leads.
A well-lived life should encompass both happiness and meaningfulness. One without the other amounts to a shortchanged existence.
Bravo @dcrypto for this intriguing post. It sure made me spare a thought or two on something I have never really seriously considered. Thanks a bunch!
Yeah you can be happy at your job, but when you're working on meaningful work that happiness is sustained, isn't fleeting, and is what helps pull you through all the crap.
Great post!