Vol. 57, No. 12 — December 1976 — The Search for
Happiness
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Opinions differ from age to age
as to what happiness is. Popular "how to" books of the 18th
century were chiefly concerned with the subject of how to
die a good death; those of the 19th century moved on to the
subject of how to make a good living; and those of the 20th
century are devoted to telling us how to live happily.
Many people - perhaps the majority of people - would say
that the greatest happiness they could achieve would be freedom
and ability to do what they want to do. That is not a very
good description of happiness, because it is difficult to
be sure just what one wants today, let alone next year and
twenty years from now.
Human beings are changeable. What may seem the supreme material
good today may be completely out of date within a few months.
What is happiness?
Happiness arises largely from the mental qualities of contentment,
confidence, serenity, and active goodwill. It includes the
pain of losing as well as the pleasure of finding. It thrives
best in a crowded life. The men and women who are recorded
in history and biography as most happy were people with always
somewhat more to do than they could possibly do. Every waking
hour of their lives was occupied with ambitious projects,
literature, love, politics, science, friendship, commerce,
professions, trades, their religious faith, and a thousand
other matters. The secret of happiness may be found by making
each of these interests count to its utmost as part of the
fabric of life.
Aristotle summarized this view in his Ethics, written in
the hey-dey of Greek thought 2,300 years ago: Happiness lies
in the active exercise of a man's vital powers along the lines
of excellence, in a life affording full scope for their development.
We need to avoid the extremes of sluggish placidity and
feverish activity. We are not going to be satisfied with felicity
which resembles that of a stone, unfeeling and unmoving, but
will look back from future years with sorrow and regret if
we run to and fro, giving in to what Socrates called "the
itch".
Happiness obviously includes two sorts of behaviour: active
and passive. We may say that the active part consists in searching
and sharing, while the passive part is made up of security
and possession. Neither part is complete of itself, and neither
yields full satisfaction if it is over-emphasized. Philosophers
from the ancient Greeks to Buddha and Balzac and Pascal and
Pitkin have been extolling a balanced life as the most happy
life, and many unhappy people can, when they face the issue,
trace their discontent to imbalance.
The recipe for happiness cannot be given in any single word,
because its many virtues have to be combined in their proper
quantities, at the proper times, for proper purposes.
Dr. Martin Gumpert, who leans toward belief in physical
well-being as the foundation of happiness, provides this prescription
in his book called The Anatomy of Happiness: prevent
physical suffering; prevent guilt; do not accept illusions"
accept the reality of death; do what you like to do; keep
learning; accept your limitations; be willing to pay for everything
you get; be willing and able to love; avoid secrets.
About seeking happiness
It is legitimate to seek happiness. We cannot help observing
that while followers of some schools of thought are telling
us to avoid seeking happiness, they intimate that if we do
so we shall be happy.
The search requires a plan. We need to know what sort of
happiness we seek, what the ingredients are, what are our
strongest wants, and what we have to start with. We should
train ourselves to keep the programme simple and free from
complications and side trips, to pay attention to little things,
to deflate quickly after being praised and to bounce back
quickly from disappointment, to seize or create opportunities
to put our special abilities to work, to seek excellence in
everything we do, to remain modest, and to review and revise
periodically.
Most of us do not really have to seek far and wide. Happiness
grows at our own fireside, if we cultivate it.
The romantic minds of young people are likely to imagine
that happy events and happiness-bringing people will make
their entrance to the sound of drums and trumpets, but when
we look back from the vantage point of maturity we see that
they came in quietly, almost unnoticed. As Benjamin Franklin
remarked in his autobiography, "Human felicity is produced
not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen,
as by little advantages that occur every day."
Succeeding in a job
Emphasis on the little things applies in whatever profession
or business we take up. Look at the multitude of little things
included in the three insistent problems of industrial management:
the application of science and technical skill to raw material;
the systematic ordering of operations, and the organization
of team-work and sustained co-operation.
The worker who can do the little things well for which he
is responsible contributes to the success of the biggest enterprise,
and the man who devotes himself to his task with zeal and
determination, using his best ability, will have a sense of
achievement, which is an ingredient of happiness.
One mark of a man who is determined to achieve happiness
in his work is that he does not ask as a preliminary to taking
a job whether the seat is soft or the building air-conditioned.
He is in too much of a hurry to get busy.
A medical writer points out some of the virtues in work
aside from the pay we get for it. Work is a physical and mental
exercise without which we would get sick and waste away. it
is vital for development of personality. It maintains our
contact with the outside world, and - very important physically
- it guarantees the pleasure of rests.
Know the job well
If it is true that there is no happiness in ignorance, this
is doubly true about ignorance of one's work. One needs, as
a preliminary to success and contentment on a job, to know
the job thoroughly. Only the man who has experienced it knows
the wonderful sense of power that comes from the simple assurance
that he is equal to his tasks.
By learning his job, a man gains insight that qualifies
him to accept responsibility. One requirement of good management
is that the manager shall be in the secret of why events occur,
and that is revealed only to those who study the reasons for
and the causes of business practices.
How do they get that knowledge? By asking questions. No
matter what activity we engage in, we need to ask questions.
At first they will pertain to the learning of procedures and
techniques, but as we progress we will be well-advised to
challenge and probe ideas which other people take for granted
as settled once and for all.
After the raw material of information has been gathered,
then we must turn it to account in our lives. Knowledge is
the material stored; intelligence is the capacity for putting
it to use. Capacity in a job is ability to do it well; it
is genius that takes what is known, injects imagination, improves
the product of one's work, and thus leads into wider fields
of opportunity.
Above all, be active
Happiness loves action, and the philosophers agree that
happiness must include some form of worthy activity. Life
demands work, but happiness requires dreaming, planning, aspiring,
doing, and pressing on from one attainment to another still
greater.
Indolence is a distressing state. It leads only to a feeling
of futility. Our greatest delight is the satisfaction which
follows full honest effort. Pleasure, enjoyment and recreation
are the wages we have; but when night falls the real question
is: "What of my day's work? What have I accomplished?"
The enthusiasm which prompts us to be usefully active needs
to be tempered by art, good sense and discretion. When an
inspiration for something big strikes us, let us take it for
a long, cool walk. Brahms said the reason for much of the
bad music in the world is haste: the composers imagine that
every splutter of their hastily-driven goose-quills is part
of a swan-song. Even if our grand conception is realized only
in part, it is better to accomplish something exquisitely
right than to engage excitedly in something that can be, at
best, mediocre.
To seek what is impossible is madness. We must front the
facts, find our strengths and weaknesses, apply our mental
vigour, and choose to do that which is according to our nature
and capacity.
Self-confidence
Out of such self-government there arises self-confidence.
The world is likely to believe in a man who believes in himself,
providing he shows that his self-reliance is grounded upon
a true appraisal and is well managed.
No one can be great in business or a profession or an art
who wants advice before he does anything important. Self-reliance
is the end expression of many qualities: emotional stability,
willingness to face facts and to bear responsibility, discipline,
faith in one's judgment, and practice in making decisions
and abiding by them.
We must admit that to make a decision - or, still more,
to revise one - is the most responsible and most exacting
part of the process of living. "No blunder in war or politics,"
said Scott in his Life of Napoleon, "is so common as
that which arises from missing the proper moment of exertion,"
and his warning is quite applicable to business. The man who
trains himself to make quick energetic decisions, even about
small matters such as writing a letter or keeping an engagement,
is contributing to his happiness by realizing his capacity
as a vigorous, accomplishing, character.
Such a person, having set one idea upon its feet, springs
another. He knows that, for him, happiness does not abide
in imitation or conformity, but arises from his ability to
think and do new things.
On choosing wisely
Those succeed best in their search for happiness who form
definite ideas of what they are going to do before they start
to do it. Aim is necessary, and it must be specific and within
the bounds of reality. Lots of people get nowhere simply because
they do not know where they want to go.
What do we seek in order to be happy? Our decision need
not be one of self-enclosed finalities, but we should plan
for definite goals, each of which will be the starting place
for a new effort. Our first plan is merely the sketch of a
picture still to be painted.
To choose our course means more than wishing we were at
its end. We must run the course. That means leaving something
behind and passing scenes which invite us to linger for their
enjoyment. There is a loss and a gain in every step forward,
and acceptance of this unalterable fact is involved in making
our choice. But the happiness of the person who sets up a
good and worthy goal and goes all-out toward it is far more
sublime than that of one who achieves pleasure without sacrifice.
To choose the goal requires wisdom, the highest type of
thinking. It silences useless discussion of insignificant
things and concentrates on reaching judgments about important
affairs.
Good judgment involves recognition of our life's possibilities
and limitations. It informs us when to put forth effort and
when to meditate. It recalls to us that there is a time to
hurry in our enterprises, and a time to go slowly. When timid
Adeimantus said, referring to the Olympic games: "Those who
rise in the games before their time are flogged," Themistocles
replied, "Yes, but those who loiter are not crowned."
Wisdom does not plod along in ruts, but is scouting far
and wide in search of truth. It is likely to challenge our
cherished beliefs, prompting us to ask ourselves: "How did
I come to think that?" The more answers we get, the less likely
are we to judge intolerantly, because we find that a few things
are altogether good or true, and nothing is altogether bad
or false.
To choose wisely demands that we give a proposed plan our
concentrated attention. Dispersion of thinking is a grievous
fault. We should not reach any decision while our minds are
occupied with other matters. Many of us divert just enough
attention from one thing to take care of another. Such casual
consideration, born of our miserly measuring out of our attention,
is an obstacle to great achievements. It robs our conclusions
of the decisiveness that marks the judgments of great executives.
If we concentrate, we can accomplish, both in thought and
in work. Concentration is the secret of the success of versatile
men from Leonardo da Vinci, who was sculptor, musician, architect,
mathematician, engineer, and painter of the immortal Mona
Lisa, to Dr. Wilder Penfield, internationally respected
surgeon, neurologist, scholar, director of research, first
man to "map" the human brain, and author of the novel No
Other Gods. All men of many talents have had in high degree
the ability to concentrate on one activity, one problem, one
thought, at a time and forget all the others.
In choosing our route toward happiness we should not forget
that the pursuit will demand courage. When we refuse to accept
some insipid fate instead of happiness, we throw down a gage
to life. We make a gesture of heroism. We assert our ability
to maintain a course we have decided upon and in some slight
way to steer the ship in inevitable storms.
Aids to happiness
There are some things which will make our search for happiness
easier, though never easy. Good habits, for example, will
accustom us to free our minds and hands of petty chores so
that we may devote our strength of mind and body to our life
job.
Civilization advances by extending the number of important
operations we can perform without thinking of them. The skills
which we develop into habits save time and energy, accustom
us to disposing of unpleasant tasks, make us exercise the
virtues of punctuality and shun the vices of procrastination,
and, generally, free us to pay particular and undistracted
attention to matters that are significant.
If pattern living takes over the routine tasks, freeing
us from the necessity of deciding less important things afresh
every day, that is a good thing, but we must not carry habit
to the point where it becomes our master. The year in which
a man's habits become sacred and untouchable marks the beginning
of his old age.
Good health is an essential part of happiness. When our
nervous system has a surplus of energy at its disposal we
take pleasure in working it off and in recuperating. Absence
of health, or indulgence in pleasure beyond the limit of our
stored force, causes unhappiness.
In keeping the balance so often referred to between income
and outgo of energy, emotion, social feeling, and the other
forces which influence our happiness, we discover the virtue
that resides in self-control.
Self-control does not mean merely surface composure. Down
among our nerve cells and fibres the molecules are counting
every discomposure and every mental disturbance. Nothing we
ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. The
emotions we allow to seethe under a tranquil exterior appearance
leave their mark upon the record, and we must make an accounting,
debit or credit.
To sit quietly in a room with nothing but one's thoughts,
or with the companionship of someone with whom we are in intellectual
communion, in an atmosphere of tranquillity and the appreciation
of vital matters - that can be a happiness in itself and the
parent of more happiness.
Things to do
Just as a business executive conducts his affairs by comparing
today's liabilities and assets with yesterday's, and proceeds
to project plans for tomorrow by a study of the movement thus
indicated, so we can do in the business of living.
No reading of books or of essays like this will take the
place of a candid, honest examination of what one has recently
done and what one is about to do. The person who floats along
on life or on his job without thinking of whence he came or
whither he is going may be contented, but it is the contentment
of a clam in the mud-flats of the harbour.
This personal inventory is an important, if not vital, factor
in the life of anyone seeking happiness. The Greek philosopher
said: "Know thyself"; the Roman philosopher improved this
by saying "Be yourself"; and St. Paul struck the complete
chord when he said: "Neglect not the gift which is in you."
It is knowledge of his clear-cut objective and his capability
in management that enables the executive to run his business
straight and true; it is knowledge of his sure foot that gives
the steeple-jack confidence; it will be self-knowledge, leading
to self-improvement, that will guide everyone of us into the
path of happiness.
This self-appraisal should not linger too lovingly in the
past, or embrace too heartily the present, or anticipate tomorrow
in too rosy tints. It should preserve a proper proportion.
One can no more find happiness by backing into the future
than by fleeing into the past.
Living in society
Never are we alone with our lives. We are enmeshed in families,
in offices, in factories, in groups, and in obligations. We
cannot be content with self-maintenance. A machine that does
no more than keep itself going is of no value whatever. Making
a contribution is essential to realization of happiness.
Dr. N. V. Peale quotes this recipe in his deservedly best
seller The Power of Positive Thinking: "The way to
happiness: keep your heart free from hate, your mind from
worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life
with love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others.
Do as you would be done by. Try this for a week and you will
be surprised."
Self-love - the narcissistic stage of life - is the most
tragic of all fixations. It prevents our adapting ourselves
to social relations. Our own conceit blinds us to the esteem
and admiration we might enjoy from others. Those who are so
self-centred remind us of Aesop's fly. it sat upon the axle-tree
of a chariot wheel and said: "What a dust I raise!"
Happiness must be won
We cannot buy a ticket to happiness. It is a destination
reached only as we search for a trail and follow it. Nothing
good, and that includes happiness, is ever reached without
labour or won without toil. The mark of an overcoming man
is to be able to say with Euphorion in Goethe's Faust:
"Unto me hateful is lightly-won spoil."
The condition of winning happiness in life - social, business,
professional - is the opposite of inertia, and it includes
little of accident. It demands direction and growth. The things
which help to make up happiness, like health, wealth, honour
and successful business endeavour, are in themselves neutral.
They are good or bad according to the use made of them. If
a man does not know how to use them, he is better off without
them. If he fails to use them well, they wilt and die.
There is no place in the search for happiness for lotus-eaters
those people who cling to a static life. But it is a mistake
to hurry unduly. We cannot leap to heights we were meant to
climb. No artist can paint all creation on one canvas; he
balances his effort in the confines of a frame.
The principles we live by, in business and in social life,
are the most important part of happiness. We need to be careful,
upon achieving happiness, not to lose the virtues which have
produced it. The person who is successful in his daily work
should not forget prudence, moderation and kindness, the qualities
essential to his success. Life can be beautiful for its grace
and goodness as well as for its strength and accomplishments.
We should find comfort in the thought that happiness, though
it may be menaced and buffeted by many forces, is saved by
hope. Everyone has, or may attain, the faculty of making use
of what befalls. If we can say at the end of a day that it
was not an empty, not a lost day, and that we are glad to
be alive because tomorrow is coming, is that, perhaps, happiness?
Published by RBC Financial Group. All editions from the RBC
Letter collection are available on our web site at www.rbc.com/responsibility/letter.
Our e-mail address is: rbcletter@rbc.com.
Publié aussi en francais.
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