Question
Happiness is considered very important in life.
Why is it difficult to define?
What factors are important in achieving happiness?
Answer
Happiness is perhaps the single most important thing in life. Whether people realize it or not, they
are usually seeking happiness for themselves and for their loved ones. However, little is really
understood about happiness. Humans don’t generally seem able to define it or say for certain how
to achieve it. This essay will explore these issues.
Defining happiness is quite difficult because it is essentially just a feeling, and in particular a
temporary one. Everyone experiences happiness sometimes, but not all the time, and it is a deeply
personal sensation. Is happiness the same experience for a four-year-old child and a forty-year-old
woman? This seems unlikely. It also seems reasonable to assume that happiness is different for each
person, and also that happiness will vary from culture to culture. Therefore, it is hard to produce a
universally accepted definition of happiness.
Because happiness is different for each person, there is no guaranteed way to achieve happiness.
However, there are some commonalities in terms of the factors that may lead to this state of feeling.
Success seems to cause happiness in people, as does an unexpected positive outcome. Feelings of
closeness to another person typically cause us to feel happiness, and other social or familial factors
often contribute as well. Happiness may also be related to self-satisfaction and high self-esteem, and
of participating effectively as part of a group.
In conclusion, happiness is notoriously difficult to define because it is a fleeting sensation that is
experienced differently by different people all around the world. However, there are numerous
possible factors that may contribute to making people happy.
