Tellez 1

Juliet N. Tellez

Professor Corri Ditch

English 114A

10 May 2019

Everlasting Treasure

Happiness is a goal that many, if not most, people have. It is something sacred to have

but often may be difficult to obtain. Many people do not know how to achieve a life with

everlasting happiness. In modern day, there are many ways in which people attempt to ‘find’

happiness, however, they are rarely successful. Within the book Pursuing Happiness by

Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, the various authors David Brooks, Graham Hill, and

Sonja Lyubomirsky, all explain their point of view based on happiness and how to achieve it.

Although the author’s viewpoints vary, they do have several points in common. Such points are

as follows: happiness is a state of mind, perception is important to being happy, and objects

cannot make people happy; instead, they can make people greedy and miserable. However, even

though the author’s have several points in common, they do have their differences as well such

as one believing in a genetic happiness “set point” and another believing that suffering can lead

to happiness.

Something the author’s have in common is that they believe that happiness is a state of

mind. Lyubomirsky states that, “ Happiness is not out there for us to find [...] it’s inside us […]

happiness, more than anything, is a state of mind, a way of preceding and approaching ourselves

Tellez 2
and the world in which we reside” (Lyubomirsky 185). Lyubomirsky is explaining how

happiness is not external and we cannot ‘find’ it outside of ourselves. Happiness is in the way

people think. However, this may be difficult because of external distractions. As stated by Hill,

“Often, material objects take up mental as well as physical space… (material objects) have a

tendency to crowd out the emotional needs they are meant to support” (Hill 312). Hill is

explaining how physical objects distract the mind instead of supporting its emotional needs.

Therefore, the minds of people are distracted with pointless physical objects. People focus on

external items and do not focus on internal needs. This can lead to physical pleasure but not true

happiness because true happiness comes from within and not through outside sources. An

example of this would be things like new cars and hugh tech gadgets. They are not a necessity,

but people continue to buy them for various reasons. People will be unable to focus on achieving

happiness through themselves if they are constantly distracted with irrelevant objects. Although

these authors do not directly say the same exact thing, their ideas on happiness are very similar

and their concepts go hand-in-hand because they both address the idea of happiness coming form

within an individual rather than outside sources.

Not only do physical objects distract the mind from achieving happiness, it can also be

the reason why one may be unhappy. Hill analyzed a study from Northwestern University

psychologist Galen V. Bodenhausen that was about the linking of “consumption with aberrant,

antisocial behavior” (Hill 311). The results showed that, “Though american consumerism has

increased substantially since the 1950’s, happiness levels have flatlined”(Hill 311), meaning that

as more and more objects have been and are continuing to be sold, people are getting less and

Tellez 3
less happy. The economy is becoming more successful but at the same time, happiness levels of

the people are diminishing. However, this is not a coincidence and may present the idea that

consumerism plays a part in whether or not someone is happy. This can be related and tied to

what author Brooks believe is what is making sad people, even sadder. He claims that when

people are sad, instead of properly confronting the issue, they numb it down with outside forces;

inevitably making their sadness worse. “They crash through the logic of individual utility and

behave paradoxically. Instead of recoiling from the sorts of loving commitments that almost

always involve suffering, they throw themselves more deeply into them”(Brooks 287). When

people are presented with a hardship in life, they do not want to deal with pain the right way,

which may be harder. Instead, they numb it down by doing things or buying things that will not

help them at all in terms of healing emotionally from a traumatic experience. People believe its

healing them because in that moment, their minds are being preoccupied with other things.

However, in reality it is like an emotional band aid; it covers up the pain, but does not actually

heal it. In this way, both the authors Brooks and Hill agree that happiness is found within

oneself; material things cannot make people happy and often make their happiness harder to

grasp.

However, even though the authors have similar ideas in common, they are not completely

the same. Lyubomirsky, for example, believes in something that none of the other authors

believe in. She believes that, “...each of us is born with a happiness set point...even if major life

changes, like a new relationship or a car accident, might push our happiness level up or down,

we tend to revert to this genetically determined set point”(Lyubomirsky 190). She explains how

happiness is

Tellez 4
related to genetics as well and can determine how happy a person may be. In the data of

Happiness Score, by Generation that Lyubomirsky presented as of April 2013, the Silent

Generation has a score of 66.7%, Boomers have 61.0%, Generation X has 55.7%, Millenials

have 54.1%, and the average 18+ has 58.6%. If a person is born with a low happiness set point,

they are less likely to be as happy as someone who is born with a high happiness set point. Or,

the person with the low set point will have to work twice as hard in order to achieve happiness,

as opposed to the person with the happiness set point that is already high. The other authors

Brooks and Hill, however, do not believe that happiness is genetic and instead, happiness

depends solely on the individual, in terms of the mindset they have and what steps they take in

order to be happy. Which, has no correlation to genetics.

Another thing that the authors are not similar on is the idea that suffering leads to

happiness. Unlike the others, Brooks believes that “ ...suffering gives people a more accurate

sense of their own limitations, what they can control and cannot control. When people are thrust

down into these deeper zones, they are forced to confront the fact they can’t determine what goes

on there”(Brooks 286). Even though the authors believe that happiness begins with oneself, they

do not state that suffering necessarily is needed in order to be happy. Brooks, however, believes

that in order to achieve true happiness, one must suffer because suffering changes people and

they way they think. Since happiness is a state of mind, a change must happen within the mind in

order to be happy, thus, suffering leads to happiness.

In conclusion, although the authors David Brooks, Graham Hill, and Sonja Lyubomirsky

within the book “Pursuing Happiness” by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski have many

Tellez 5
ideas and concepts in common, there are also differences. An idea the authors shared was that

happiness is a state of mind and perception is important to being happy. Another idea they

agreed on was that objects cannot make people happy; instead, they can make people miserable.

Despite the authors having similar ideas, they also have several differences as well.

Lyubomirsky believes that every person is born with a genetic happiness “set point” that will

impact one’s amount of happiness in their life. As well as Brooks believing that suffering can

lead to happiness because when one suffers, they change the way they think. Therefore, if a

certain mindset is required in order to be happy, a change that the suffering causes in the mind,

can ultimately lead to the person achieving happiness. Even though discovering happiness within

oneself may be challenging, it is a rare and everlasting treasure that will be all worth the struggle

in the end.

Works Cited
Hill, Graham. “Living with less. A Lot Less.” Pursuing Happiness. Parfitt,Matthew and

Skorczewski, Dawn. Boston, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016. pp. 308-312.

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

Dawn. Boston, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016. pp. 284-287.

Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “How Happy Are You and Why?” Pursuing Happiness. Parfitt, Matthew

and Skorczewski, Dawn. Boston, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016. pp. 179-197.