In the ultimate search for happiness many people have offered their opinions on how to find it. Consequently, we have many sayings on what DOES NOT lead to happiness but only one (that I can think of) to say how to achieve it. According to the philosopher Aristotle the way to find true happiness is to lead an active life wherein those actions are considered to be virtuous. A virtuous action is one that involves movement towards the completion of a goal considered to be ethical in its own right. Given the premise that the way to happiness is through virtuous action, is it possible for human beings to be happy? The free will we were endowed with gives us the choice to do with our lives what WE will. Is that what we’re supposed to be doing, though? What WE will?
If it is within a person’s will to commit virtuous actions all day, everyday, won’t it be the case that the person is, at some point, not happy? Virtuous actions preclude immoral behavior. You’ve heard the excuse “I’m human” before I’m sure. This is to suggest that it is human to make mistakes, deviating from what we were supposed to do. Momentary happiness is usually the reason for such departure. If we are to achieve ultimate happiness, though, can we make mistakes? I need to have a conversation with free will. I want to ask it why it wills people toward the opposite of being free. Do we, in effect, prevent our own happiness just by allowing ourselves to be “human”? If this one way of finding happiness (virtuous action) is the answer, why are so many people unhappy?
Many believe that there is a religious answer to this question. In order to find happiness, that person must know God and have a true connection with Him. If it is so simple as having a biblical connection, why don’t we do it? Where is the disconnect between living the teachings and just reading them? Again, it seems that free will enters into the equation to convince us to do otherwise. Sometimes, though, it is not our free will that hampers us from finding our definition of happiness. Sometimes the people who have the best intentions guide us into becoming the person that they think we should be.
Are you living your own life as another human being wants you to live it? People grow up with this belief that they have to be “something”. What they realize after a while, though, is that the “something” that they spent years becoming was not what they wanted at all. Their life is defined by the influence of their parents or friends but not them. Some people cannot realistically dictate the occurrences of their own lives. If you can, though, what is stopping you? It takes listening to yourself and defining happiness for yourself to achieve it. So, why is it so hard to listen to our own self?
Chanelle Schneider -- Daily Venus Diva.
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