Life and the pursuit of a more meaningful life.
The pursuit of happiness is one of the most iconic and provocative journey’s that society can provide. Each day we are urged to be on our own pursuit of happiness throughout our lives, but is happiness really what we should be pursuing?
Happiness vs Meaning
How we live our lives is a large part of what it means to be human. Some choose to live a life of selflessness and charity, while others choose to forge their own path to happiness. A Prominent Jewish psychiatrist Viktor Frankl postulated that the pursuit of happiness had nothing to do with leading a meaningful life. Society should be pressuring people to live a life that they would be proud of or happy with, rather than based on immediate feelings in the present. A satisfying lifestyle of “taking” was typically found to be a happier one. People who have found meaning in life are usually giving and make sacrifices to happiness in order to benefit others. The meaning derived from a selfless lifestyle comes from the sacrifice to something greater than oneself. While happiness is temporary and fades, meaning lasts in life through the past and future.
Short-Term Happiness and Self-Control
-Explain why instant gratification is detrimental to people’s happiness.
-Explain why Self-Control is directly related to instant gratification and why it leads to overall unhappiness.
Society and the Pursuit of Happiness
-Explain how society revolves around telling people to be happy.
-Explain how society wouldn’t survive if everyone was always happy.
Working Hypothesis 1:
Society is becoming less happy because of it pressures people to achieve their pursuit of happiness.
Working Hypothesis 2:
Topics for Smaller Papers:
-Happiness is fleeting but meaning is forever
-Instant Gratification is the Leading cause of Dissatisfaction
Current State of the Research Paper:
My research paper is still in the early stages. I still have to complete the research to procure a second hypothesis and refine my first. In addition I need to research further to analyze each of my sources to further the content.
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Counterintuitive Spring 2024 
Couldn’t you just say that happiness or pleasure is a result of doing something meaningful? quality and purpose are part of what bring us “meaning”, when we create something as creative human beings, something of quality and meaningful purpose, we almost naturally feel a sense of pleasure from the work. Meaning and work go hand in hand. Just like quality and purpose go hand in hand with work. Working towards a purpose is what declares the meaning yes?
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This topic always worries me, thegreatestpenn. I leave it in the sidebar because it can be done well, but I intervene quickly if the early work indicates there will be trouble. When I see clarity and purpose early, I’m heartened to assist; when the first drafts are squirmy and vague, I try to guide the writer into more specific claims.
Your first paragraph says that POH is iconic and provocative. That it’s a journey. And that we pursue happiness daily for a lifetime. You ask if that’s a mistake.
Your subhead indicates you think Meaning might be a replacement goal.
Then you give us this:
The claims crisscross one another and confuse at least this one reader. Are you equating “immediate feelings in the present” with “the pursuit of happiness”? Why? Are happiness and a meaningful life incompatible? Why? I hope you don’t plan to pursue a thesis that society should do something it’s not inclined to do. When you say we should be pressured to live lives we’re “happy with,” are you using “happy” in a way different from its use one sentence earlier in “the pursuit of happiness”?
This worries me, TGP. I understand how early in the process you are, and I acknowledge I told the class I didn’t expect developed theses or well-organized arguments, so I will certainly grant you the time you need to start making clear claims. Just understand how carefully I will be reading for them.
You continue:
This begins to be clearer. “Taking” is satisfying and therefore makes takers happy (or is FOUND TO BE by an unnamed entity). But “Givers” sacrifice their happiness find meaning in life. Selflessness requires sacrifice which imparts meaning. It lasts while happiness fades.
You can let readers imagine those alternatives for about 3 paragraphs, TGP, and then you’d better start nailing down their perceptions with concrete examples. The longer you stay in the very abstract realm of
these speculations, the more likely your readers will be to find something better to read or do.
This particular claim appears to contradict your overall position:
—-Explain why Self-Control is directly related to instant gratification and why it leads to overall unhappiness.
The premise I find most intriguing and worthy of exploration is this one:
—-Explain how society wouldn’t survive if everyone was always happy.
How closely related is it to this one?:
—Instant Gratification is the Leading cause of Dissatisfaction
I recommend a very specific thesis, TGP. It might require you to watch some very bad television. You may substitute a better, less painful, but equally specific angle.
Why the Housewives of Atlanta [or Orange County, or North Jersey] are so miserable.
or:
Why watching “The Housewives of Atlanta” Makes Us So Miserable.”
You could examine in very specific detail why women who appear to have amassed far more wealth and physical comfort than any human should require, nevertheless find very little happiness in their lives.
Or you could examine in equally specific detail why being exposed to the unimaginable wealth of a very slim segment of society makes the rest of us, who feel pressured by our society to “achieve” that visible evidence of “success,” feel insignificant when measured against the flagrant exhibition of wealth.
Both examine the same tension you’re exploring between the pursuit of immediate gratification and the devotion to a selfless cause. Figure out for yourself how a generosity of spirit (or a lack thereof) fits into the picture.
I await your reply.
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