HAPPINESS: IS IT RIGHT TO PURSUE IT AT ALL COSTS?

Research suggests that focusing on your own happiness can end up making you miserable

- PROF PAUL DOLAN

All of us are striving to be happy. We put considerable time and effort into doing so, yet we often get caught up in bad habits and cycles of misery. We might even sometimes wonder whether happiness is a worthy pursuit at all.

In my book, Happiness By Design, I have made a case for the concept of happiness to include achieving feelings of purpose (or meaning and fulfilment) alongside feelings of pleasure (such as joy and excitement). For example, when I am teaching students, I am differently happy to when I am on a night out: the first is more fulfilling, the second is more fun.

There are two common roadblocks to consider when we talk about what makes us happy. The first is the notion that the pure pursuit of happiness causes people to care only about themselves, so that they become narcissistic and selfish. And the second notion is that, paradoxically, focusing on happiness can end up making us miserable.

HELPING OTHERS VS HELPING YOURSELF