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Pamela Medina

Professor Beadle

ENGL 144A

24 September 2018

Happiness

There are different things in life that make people happy. What makes you happy? Does

that same thing bring your friends and family happiness? There are different reasons you can be

happy whether it's your past, your lifestyle, or your genetics. Authors David Brooks believes

happiness has to do with what you have been through before. Graham Hill claims happiness is

dependent of your lifestyle. Sonja Lyubomirsky explains that happiness isn’t completely based

on our genes but also on our environment. Each author believes there is happiness, but that it

comes about differently. All three authors share the same thought that your environment affects

your happiness but they think differently when it comes to the mentality people take in order to

live a happy life.

Everyone is familiar with the cliche that “everything happens for a reason.” David

Brooks doesn’t seem to believe that, “ Just as failure is sometimes just failure (and not your path

to becoming the next Steve Jobs)” (Brooks 284). This is often used as an excuse to make up for

people's own actions of slacking off and not going through with a project successfully. Failure

can lead to better things, but that is if it is taken as a lesson. Steve Jobs is a popular example of

failure leading to success. This doesn’t mean failing a test will somehow lead to an A. Instead

the take away would be to study harder for the next test. There will be many times you’ll fail in

life,
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but should only motivate you to better. However failure can lead to sufferment. Suffering is

something that has a wide scale of severity. No matter how severe any kind of suffering, it

“...gives people a more accurate sense of their own limitations, what they can control and cannot

control” (Brooks 286). Suffering allows one to learn more about themselves. Brooks argues that

it pushes your limits and allows one to grow without realizing it while going through these tough

times. Brooks believes your happiness has a lot to do with your past failures and suffering

because he claims that after recovering from suffering; “Many people don’t come out healed;

they come out different” (Brooks 287) There is always a positive in a negative. Change can be a

good thing and bring happiness and joy into your life.

Brooks claim that after suffering you come out as a better changed happier person, is seen

in Graham Hills life. Hill talks about how he went from living an extravagant life and buying all

the materialistic things he ever wanted to downsizing the place he lived in and getting rid of

these excessive things. He claims he was much happier when he started living simpler life.

Living an extravagant life was his sufferment. This isn’t what is often thought about as suffering

but it was his own experience of not being happy. Hill believes that, “Often, material objects take

up mental as well as physical space” (Hill 312). He was overwhelmed with how much time he

had to put into maintaining his expenses. After fifteen years of getting rid of many of his

belongings, he saw them as unnecessary and he realized he was much happier without them. His

argument is that happiness is dependent on your lifestyle. In Hills case it was through enjoying

his life and not worrying on material things. Whether or not materialistic things bring you joy is

a big argument but , “there isn’t any indication that any of these things makes anyones happier;
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in fact it seems the reverse may be true” (Hill 308). This may have to do with the fact that you’ll

appreciate things more when they aren’t as accesible. You appreciate and value things more

when you have less. Hill shared his experience in life and this big change he made to make his

own life more enjoyable. Hills experience is respected because he is someone who has lived two

different styles of living. He lived the extravagant life and a much more simple life. Hill knew

what he was talking about because it was first hand experience. Hill believes you can be living

your happiest life with less instead of more.

Sonja Lyubomirsky takes a different approach on happiness in comparison to David

Brooks and Graham Hill. Lyubomirsky addresses whether happiness is in your genes or not. She

decided to do her own study. Lyubomirsky's studied several happy individuals by observing

them. She presents three different myths on happiness. These three myths are that happiness is

something we look for, the second is that if we could change something in our life than we

would be happy, and the third myth is that happiness is all in our genes. Lyubomirsky informs us

on where our genes stand in relation to our happiness, “It appears that each of us is born with a

happiness set point, a characteristic potential for happiness throughout our life” (Lyubomirsky

190). This is why many people believe they aren’t happy. Although this is somehow in our genes

it doesn’t mean it is set in stone. The setpoint a person is born with has more to do with your

personality. There are people who have more outgoing personalities and those who aren’t as

outgoing. Although your happiness setpoint is constant for the most part you can change

somethings but you can’t change your genes. Lyubomirsky presents a chart on what determines

happiness. In the pie chart it shows fifty percent is your set point of happiness you are born with,
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forty percent is intentional activity, and ten percent is your circumstances. The forty percent is

what a person can change and try to do differently to make themselves happier, according to

Lyubomirsky. Therefor there are things you can do to live a happier life.

David Brooks, Graham Hill, and Sonja Lyubomirsky all presented different arguments on

what happiness is. David Brooks argued that your happiness is determined by what you have

been through. He believes that suffering makes you know what happiness is and after suffering

you will be a changed person and discover a lot more about yourself. On the other hand, Graham

Hill claimed that living with less brings happiness. Living a simple life is what will bring less

stress and more joy. While, Sonja Lyubomirsky presented an argument that happiness is more of

something that as in our genes. According to her there are things you can do to make yourself

more happy but for the most part a person is born with it. Brooks and Hill had a similar proposal

on happiness. Both arguments have to do with the way you live your life. For example for

Brooks, how will you live your life after going through something? How will you turn that

negative into a positive and be a happier person? Or will you live a simple life and be happy like

Graham Hill ? Lyubomirsky's argument was the one that focused on what you inherit from your

parents. She was focused on how half of our happiness is a set point we have in our genes that

we were born with. All three authors presented that no matter what determines your happiness

you can always do something to change it even if it's not a big difference. There are things you

can do to become a happier person and live a happier life.

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Works Cited

Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does.” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Matthew Parfitt and

Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford St. 2016, pp. 284-287

Hill, Graham. “Living with Less. A Lot Less.” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Matthew Parfitt

and Dawn Skorczewski; Bedford St. 2016, pp. 308-313

Lyubomirsky , Sonja. “How Happy Are You and Why?” Pursuing Happiness edited by

Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski; Bedford St. 2016, pp.179-197