SHORT RULES #6
How to Be Happy — 36 Short Rules for (the Joyful) Life
#19 — “Action may not bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” — William James
What does it mean to be happy? As you’ll see in this piece, many great thinkers have written and thought deeply about happiness. The Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote that only one course of action could make you happy: “Cast aside those things that glitter on the outside, those things that are promised you by another or from another, and trample them underfoot. Look to your real good, and rejoice in what is yours. What is it that is yours? Yourself; the best part of you.”
What is Happiness?
The psychologist Jonathan Haidt writes in The Happiness Hypothesis, “Happiness is not something that you can find, acquire, or achieve directly.” According to Haidt,
You have to get the conditions right and then wait. Some of those conditions are within you, such as coherence among the parts and levels of your personality. Other conditions require relationships to things beyond you: Just as plants need sun, water, and good soil to thrive, people need love, work, and a connection to something larger.
