There is more to life than being happy, it is a counterintuitive that if someone is happy their life has meaning. This is not always the case. In many ways a happy person is portrayed as someone who is selfish, a selfish person will most likely not do things to give their life meaning.

For my essay, I will research the difference of a happy person and a person who’s life has meaning. There are multiple studies that claim Americans do not have a strong sense of the things that make their lives meaningful. Many Americans today say that they are the happiest they’ve ever been. Some studies claim that levels of happiness in America are at a fourth time high. The question is, is their a difference between leading a meaningful life and leading a happy life. Living a happy life and living a meaningful life are classified quiet differently when it comes down to it. Most people that live a happy life are classified as “takers”. Those who live a meaningful life are classified as “givers”.The pursuit of happiness is not enough nowadays. Americans do not even have a sense of what makes their lives meaningful.

Finding the difference in the life of a person who is happy and the life of a person who believes their life has meaning would be very interesting. There are definitely substantial in these two types of lifestyles, can people really have it all?

1. There’s More to Life Than Being Happy

Background: This article illustrates the difference between the average Americans happy life differs from a meaningful life. Most American people who have a “happy” life have been classified as selfish people. Others classified as those with a meaningful life are the givers, their sole purpose in life is to make others happy, but do they gain happiness through that?

How I intend to use it: The way I intend to use this is by taking the differences of a giver and a taker and use them to counter argue the difference between happiness and meaningfulness. Many people do not understand the differences these two qualities can have. Being selfish in life should not be the reason a person is living a happy life. Im going to use this article to support the fact that what a person gives in life is what they get from life.

2. The how of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want

Background: This article shows the in’s and out’s of the meanings and mysteries of happiness. Happiness can portrayed in different ways through different people. The article expresses the differences in happiness and how it varies year to year and person to person.

How I intend to use it: I intend to use this by showing how different people define happiness in different ways. Happiness has changed in meaning generation to generation, some may even classify happiness as a fad. I want to express happiness from a scientific view and this article can help me do so.

3. New Developments in the Meaning of Life

Background: This article classifies what, if anything, makes a persons life meaningful. Positions on the meaning of life can vary strongly from study to study and from person to person. Critical questions should be asked when thinking about the meaning of life.

How I intend to use it: I intend to use this in my paper by using key points throughout the article classifying the meaning of life. Another way to word this would be how a persons life has meaning and or why.

4. Meaningfulness and Time

Background: In this article they discuss the meaning of life in relation to time, emotions, and the situation in which things happen. All of these aspects have a large impact on the meaningfulness of different things that happen at different times.

How I intend to use it: I will use this post to help my readers understand how different aspects affect how different events in ones life are remembered and how much meaning they have. Throughout my paper I will be discussing how important meaning is in ones life. This article will help me describe why some things mean what they mean as opposed to others.

5. Wealth and Happiness

Background: This article demonstrates how wealth correlates to a persons happiness. Wealth is a large aspect of the happiness of many Americans. People depend on money in order to stay happy but this is not the way it should be. When money is involved the happiness becomes selfish and is not genuine.

How I intend to use it: I intend to use his article by showing how selfish people with a “happy” life could be. These are the people I have mentioned earlier, the takers. Being a taker is not the way to a happy life. Material things are only temporary and are a tell tale sign of a shallow and selfish person. This is how I intend to use this article.

6. Is a Happy Life Different from a Meaningful One

Background: There are five crucial differences between a happy life and a meaningful one. These five aspects are easily seen when looking at a person who lives a happy life opposed to a person who lives a meaningful life. The study that was conducted basically proves in multiple ways that living a meaningful like is better and more fulfilling then living a happy life. Through multiple research techniques a meaningful life is proven to have more significance.

How I intend to use it: I intend to use this information to show that a happy life has less value then that of a meaningful life. Those who live a happy life are takers and are never actually fully satisfied with the way their lives turned out. Those who experience a manful life have a deeper appreciation for life itself. They do not only care about themselves, but more importantly those who may be less fortunate. These five differences shown in the study of a meaningful vs. a happy life will help express this.

7. Why a meaningful life is more fulfilling than a happy one

Background: The idea of happiness is when a desired need is met. When this need is met our happiness levels increase. Why is such an increase coming from material objects and selfish qualities? Why do these things make people happy? Those who live happy lives are the ones who’s joy comes from outside objects they may gain or that are handed to them, no work involved, no achievement. Those who live meaningful lives are the ones who gain happiness from giving to others, giving back to the community, helping out, earning the things they yearn for. That type of life is so much more fulfilling.

How I intend to use it: In relation to my paper this article has a great importance. It step by step by step goes through the reasonings of why a meaningful life is more fulfilling and satisfying then a happy life. I will use these facts to support claims made in other articles about meaningful lives and their great importance.

8. Do you want a meaningful or a happy life?

Background: This article goes into detail about how the meanings of a happy and a meaningful life may sometimes overlap in some peoples minds. This article also goes through five large differences between meaning and happiness. Factors such as getting what you want verses getting what you need, and also time management play a large role in portraying the differences.

How I intend to use it: I intend to use this as support for unanswered claims that ask whether a happy life or a meaningful life is more purposeful. These five major differences should help those that are confused differentiate between the value of these two different lifestyles.

9. A Meaningful life is more important than a happy one

Background: The aspects that give a persons life meaning are ultimately more important then those that make a persons life happy. This article describes why a life with meaning is greater then a life just filled with artificial happiness.

How I intend to use it: I intend to use this to support my claim of why a meaningful life is more important then a happy one.

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