The Choice Of Hercules: What is the Secret to Happiness?
The secret to long-lasting contentment might be different from what you think it is.
“Happiness then is the best, noblest, and most pleasant thing in the world.” — Aristotle
If you ask anyone what they want most out of life, their answer will almost always return to one word: happiness. This can come in many shapes and forms, but underlying all of them are certain principles that separate true happiness from the mere illusion of it.
The problem is that many people don’t really know what will make them happy. They believe that true happiness is the ability to sit on a beach all year sipping cocktails. However, in reality, this will not make them happy. It might for a little while — at least until the inner workings of their brain come in and make them miserable again.
Ancient philosophers pondered a great deal on the subject of happiness, looking at it from different angles, but the most powerful answers to this conundrum always involved something counter-intuitive. Challenges.
Many of their myths and legends exemplified this idea of struggle as the road to happiness.
