Lykke: analyse af Ben-Shahar, Crichton og Surowiecki

“The Question of Happiness” is an excerpt from the book “Happier” which was published in 2008, written by Tal Ben-Shahar. In this excerpt, Tal Ben-Shahar questions on how to find happiness and what real happiness feels like. In the beginning of the text he thinks that winning the national squash championship will bring him fulfillment, which is necessary for him to achieve happiness. He then states, that winning the title will not bring long lasting happiness. He argues that it’s only a temporary happiness when you achieve one of your goals. This is where he comes up with the master question over them all; how do I achieve long lasting happiness? He pinpoints that setting a new goal will not substitute that happiness he had felt. According to Tal Ben-Shahar there’s a lot of words who is misguided for happiness, but those are not the underlying basis of the emotion happiness.

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In the excerpt “The Question of Happiness”, Tal Ben-Shahar asks questions on how happiness and successfulness can be related to each other, but he’s trying to figure out how to define the words. He explains that success only will give you a short feeling of joy, but happiness and success is not related. When success is achieved we still have an empty space in us, that we need to figure out how to fulfill if we want lasting happiness. In the essay “happiness” Michael Crichton has got some explanations. He says the most of us most likely have been told that happiness is an illusion. He then explains that it isn’t, we have all felt the emotion at some point or another. He states that shopaholics purchase whatever to have a feeling of joy, because they’ve done something “good” for themselves. But that joy will fade away, and a cycle begins when it fades because they’re aching for that feeling of joy. He pinpoints that having yourself in focus and doing something for yourself all the time, won’t bring you long lasting happiness. Put the subject of you out of focus, get busy, obtain yourself and help others. He argues that we need to get socially connected with family and friends that we care about. Human relationships will bring us joy. Caring for, and helping others will make the world a better place, and make your own life worth a while. He actually says that most of us need bigger hearts, instead of our hardworking minds. “Happiness” relates to “Technology and happiness”, where James Surowiecki states that wealth doesn’t bring us happiness. He states that the more stuff or wealth you have, the more depressed you get. Experts have proved with tests, that the Amish people turn out to be some of the happiest people on earth, and that’s because they don’t rely on modern technology. They have such a strong community and stable families, that everyone cares and helps each other in their community.