Kenny Linares

Professor Ditch

English 113B

11 May 2020

The Struggle of Happiness

           Many of us want to be happy, but in order to achieve happiness, it is a constant battle

between both internal and external problems we face every day. People all throughout the world

struggle with happiness and throughout this college semester I read four articles that enlightened

me about many misconceptions about happiness and how they believe the general public can

achieve happiness. After reading these articles I learned of many myths the general public falls

prey to when they think of what they can do to be happy and the points they made throughout

them changed my viewpoint on achieving happiness. I learned that suffering while it being

unwanted can actually make us into stronger individuals. Graham Hill’s argument, in achieving

happiness, aligns more with transforming your external environment by getting rid of

any materialistic things that are not needed to survive. However, authors such as Sonja

Lyubomirsky, David Brooks, Dalai Lama, and Howard Cutler fall into the belief that

happiness is more internal and suggest transforming the mind to perceive their day to day life in

a more positive light.

           Fixing your external environment is what Graham Hill believes is the correct way of

achieving happiness. Hill believes that the want of materialistic possessions is what drives people

away from ever being happy. His belief is you are never going to find happiness if all you think

about is that car you always wanted with the salary that can never afford it with. Happiness

is not something you can buy; it is something that has to change around you. Many people go
their whole lives trying to make their external environment larger with grandeur while

believing happiness will come with it. Graham Hill in his article “Living with Less A Lot

Less” said, “It took 15 years, a great love and a lot of travel to get rid of all the inessential things

I had collected and live a bigger, better, richer life with less.” (255). What this quote means

is Hill lived the life many people believe happiness comes with and he is now living the life

happiness has been the whole time. Hill is a wealthy businessman who could probably afford

any materialistic possession he desires, but he got rid of all of it because he came to the

conclusion that it was actually ruining his life. In Hill’s article he states, “My success and the

things it bought quickly changed from novel to normal…my theoretically upgraded life didn’t

feel better…I felt more anxious.” (255) This quote means that the life Hill first believed came

with happiness was slowly destroying his mental state, this life of wanted everything came

with increased stress and unease. Hill is suggesting that if you decrease the materialistic things

you have in life it will lead to not only less stress, but with the unnecessary clutter out of your

life you will be able to find the happiness you sought for in the first place. Graham Hill teaches

us that transforming your external environment by getting rid of the clutter that are unneeded

materialistic possessions you will find happiness.

           While the argument Hill presented was insightful, the authors Howard Cutler and The

Dalai Lama believe to achieve happiness transforming one’s internal space is the way we should

go about achieving happiness. The Dalai Lama and Cutler suggests our state of mind is what

ultimately decides if we want to be happy or not. A state of mind that dwells only on the

negatives in one’s life like, that they do not make enough money to be happy, is never going to

experience the tranquility of a trained state of mind. Their beliefs suggest the richest man in the

world could go his entire life being unhappy even though he theoretically can own anything he
wants, while someone with nothing can go their entire life being content and happy with

what they have. They believe happiness stems from our point of view of the world rather than the

world itself. For example, in the article “The Sources of Happiness”, by The Dalai Lama and

Howard Cutler, they inform us about two different individuals and while one arguably has

a better life, it is the other that’s happier and that’s because of their state of mind. In the article

the happier individual actually has HIV and he states, “ I seem to get more out of each day than I

ever did before, on a moment to moment basis, I feel happier than I ever have, I just seem to

appreciate everyday things more.” (16). This individual while stricken with an undesirable virus,

that is currently incurable, learned to appreciate what they had rather than undervalue their

possessions. This is the power of their belief, your internal space, your point of view of the

world, your state of mind is what ultimately decides your happiness.

The suggestion of David Brooks is that suffering can be a good thing if our mental state

is strong enough to receive the pain and then transform it into something positive. His belief is

that transforming our internal space by growing stronger and overcoming your day to day

struggles will lead to happiness. He implies that our brain is a muscle and it gets stronger

overtime because of the unpredictability life can throw at you. Suffering while no one desires it

is an unavoidable experience most people will go through regardless of social standing during

their lifetime, so Brooks suggests instead of dwelling on the pain you need to get up and keep

moving forward. In the article “What Suffering Does” by David Brooks, he states, “recovering

from suffering is not like recovering from a disease. Many people do not come out healed; they

come out different.” What this quote suggests is while many people experience pain through

suffering it will not always heal and instead of looking back and having this pain weigh you

down we should keep looking forward because we need to come out the other end a stronger
person. People will not be able to wipe the pain away from their heart so, to deal with it, we

need to become stronger individuals in order to overcome the pain and to become happier. David

Brooks suggest that happiness is an internal struggle and we need to overcome it if we ever

want to be happy. 

           Comparatively, People with genuinely tragic lives may even be happier than the ones who

are more fortunate because of their internal space and they were able to transform it into

something that can overcome anything. Sonia Lyubomirsky suggests that unless the situation of

your life is incredibly dire, your external environment is not the crux of your unhappiness it’s the

state your mind is in. She teaches us the many myths people believe in everyday that keep them

from being happy. Our internal thoughts are what dictate whether or not we are happy

because she suggests that if you live your life constantly comparing yourself to others you

are never going to look at yourself attempt to fix the problems you have. In Lyubomirsky's

article, she states, “…the fountain of happiness can be found in how you behave, how you think,

and what goal you set everyday of your life.” (157). In this quote she teaches us that the way we

perceive our day to day life’s dictates not only the actions we will take but also how we will find

happiness. She suggests that the world and circumstances we are born with does not have the

privilege to decide if we are happy or not only, we do. Lyubomirsky suggests that

transforming one’s internal space will lead to happiness.

           In conclusion authors like The Dalai Lama, Howard Cutler, Sonia Lyubomirsky, and

David Brooks agree that happiness in more dictated by one’s internal space rather than

external. Graham Hill’s argument still holds truth because no one is born the same way many can

only benefit from listening to Hill’s reasoning on why happiness is more dictated by our external

space rather than internal. Happiness is up to the individual’s own belief and learning that
there is more than one way to achieve happiness can only benefit us as a society because one of

the biggest driving factors humans have to wake up day to day is searching for their own

happiness.
 Works Cited

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

and Skorczewski, Dawn, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2020, pp. 226-229.

Cutler, Howard and The Dalai Lama. “The Sources of Happiness.” Pursuing Happiness,

edited by Parfitt, Mathew and Skorczewski, Dawn, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2020, pp. 15-

27.

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

and Skorczewski, Dawn, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2020, pp. 254-258

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

Parfitt, Mathew and Skorczewski, Dawn, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2020, pp. 141-158.