match000

So perhaps the question is:

1) Is happiness the constant pursuit of your goals (which will in turn give you feelting happiness which quickly turns into satisfaction only), but most importantly, to pursue *new* goals once the old ones have been reached?

2) Or is hapiness the result of completing your goals? (hence the pursuit could be unhappy or happy).



Gilda, your original post implies that you have run out of goals.

Based on Theorem 1, you feel 'satisfaction' rather than happiness because you *feel* you have no more goals to pursue, and since happiness is derived from the pursuit of goals but not the end result itself, you feel not happy but only satisfied.

The problem then would be you need to find new goals.


Based on theorem 2, since you have already acommplished so many of your goals, you should already be happy. But you're not. So Thm 2 is false and that, at least for you, happiness is derived from the pursuit of goals (those things which you *think* will bring you *lasting* happiness but which only bring you momentary happiness and then turn into only satisfaction).


So assuming Thm 1 is correct, that happiness is mainly from the pursuit of goals, why do we get so stressed (or 'negative emotions') when we are pursuing our goals? I think stress is an indicator that reminds us that our pursuit is slowing down, and stress make us get our be-hinds in gear and achieve our goal(s).

We mistakenly *think* that achieving goals yields us happiness, but then we are puzzled when we only feel satisfied. So we reach for newer goals. And so on. We must reach our goals ASAP.

So I believe I cannot conclude that happiness is solely derived from the pursuit of goals. Rather, it is also directly proportional to the rate of change of finding new pursuits of goals (higher your rate of -completing- your old goals and -finding- new goals, the more happy you are).

I guess an analogy would be that happiness is most like velocity and acceleration: happiness derived from pursuit of goals is velocity, happiness derived from the completion of goals is like acceleration. Like, how when a pendulum swings back and forth, stopping at the two extremes of its swing. At those points max distance has been reached (aka the Goal), velocity is 0 (ie no more happiness derived from pursuit), acceleration is max (ie happiness derived from goal completion is maxed).

At the midpoint of the swing, velocity is maxed (pursuit happiness maxed), acceleration is 0 (goal happiness is 0, you haven't reached your goal at all at this point!).

I guess pursuit happiness can also be called happiness derived from anticipation.

Anyways, right now you are like a pendulum stuck on the extreme end. Happiness derived from goal completion is short-lived and quickly turns into satisfaction, as postulated above. So right now you are maxed with goal happiness but really that has become goal satisfaction. But you also have 0 velocity and thus 0 pursuit happiness, the main component of happiness. You need to unhook yourself from the end, get the pendulum back swinging, so to speak.


After typing that all down, I think I also know why I can't get laid now.