Happiness .. discuss

[jimi]

The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated, laws ordained, and societies modelled, by the most profound wisdom of patriots and legislators. Even the lonely savage, who lies exposed to the inclemency of the elements and the fury of wild beasts, forgets not, for a moment, this grand object of his being.

And is that why we go sailing .. is it a shortcut .. discuss!

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[Magic_Sailor]

Wow - elekwant or wot!

But dead right. Therefore, taking it as a given - why does life seem to make it so difficult to attain?

Magic

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[dralex]

Are our expectations of happiness too high?

<hr width=100% size=1>Life's too short- do it now./forums/images/icons/wink.gif

 

[jimi]

Aha .. but what is happiness .. is it a transitory sensory experience or something more pernament .. or perhaps the realisation of one's inconsequence in the parenthesis of time in the totality of eternity?

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[dralex]

Crikey Jimi- what are you on today- have you just realised that all we can look forward to in the future is oncontinence, dribbling and death?

I think both your ideas are applicable. Happiness can be a very transient feeling , fulfillment is a longer term thing. Fulfillment, in my view, is happiness most of the time. It's easy to get transient happiness, for example the feeling after a good meal or a sh** ( two words fit there). To get fulfillment takes more effort an planning to get the right balance in your life. I think I would like to sail all the time, but is the reason I enjoy it so much linked to the fact I look forward to it after a crap week at work, or do I genuinely enjoy it. I'd like to test the hypothesis.



<hr width=100% size=1>Life's too short- do it now./forums/images/icons/wink.gif

 

[ChrisE]

I've a feeling I've seen that quote before somewhere, if not, I apologise.

If you want a half serious answer to this I'd say that there's a few things to take into account:

1. Some of us are lucky enough to be born with a happy disposition and generally look upon the bright side of life, making the most of the cards that one has been dealt.

2. Attainment of happiness as a pursuit in its own right is about as useless in a company pursuing profit as its sole motive. In my view happiness is a byproduct that results from good relationships (that need working at), enough money (that needs working for) and agreeable home and business environments (that you need to define and work towards).

3. An acceptable balance of work, home and leisure activities.

4. An acceptable level of control over one's life.

Other than that, I find a good bottle of Cote de Rhone is an acceptable alternative.

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[Evadne]

Ah but..

What about all those people who are only happy when they are miserable? You know, park wardens, grumpy old men and the like. Do they get more miserable and upset with the world in order to achieve a higher state of happiness or do the two cancel out?

Do you think that they are happiest after an eighteen hour beat in F7 wind against tide, only to find a big boat with "no mooring alongside" in the only berth for 20 miles, ten minutes after the pubs have closed, or after a week swanning around in F3's and warm Caribbean sunshine. The former makes them really miserable and grumpy, and therefore really happy but does the latter make them less miserable, and therefore less happy?

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[jimi]

David Hume (1711-1776), Scottish philosopher & historian

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[Evadne]

Or perhaps:
Some people are born happy, while others have happiness thrust upon them.
An optimist always sees that the glass is half full, a pessimist sees it is his round again.

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[dralex]

I'd like to experience happiness thrusting upon me! Control over your life is a definate element in happiness IMO as it makes you feel you are making active decisions to change outcomes, therefore everything you do is by choice- that also means you can't complain about anything because it's all your own fault, therefore if you don't complain about anything, everything must be good and therefore make you happy. QED /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>Life's too short- do it now./forums/images/icons/wink.gif

 

[Evadne]

I agree, that's why sailing always makes me happy. Once the mooring buoy plops into the water we are completely on our own with the illusion of 100% control over our destiny, the vagaries of wind and Mr Diesel notwithstanding.
I think one way to happiness is only to worry about the things you can control, which will make you happy, and accept all else as part of the scenery, which will upset you a lot less.

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[tcm]

Yep, sailing and lots of other things are ways of making us happy. OK, they're shortcuts if you like. Actually, not to much of a "shortcut" cos ChrisEnstones bottle of wine is an even shorter cut.

Perhaps happiness is something that some people need explained to them, regarding how often it happens. So, even after the 6 hour beat and no marina mooring, or boat busted....have a think: see all those people on the dockside? Even your very presence, in a boat, is making them happy.

At work, that can be made quite happy too. The point of work is
to cover life's essentials by subsistence farming etc all the way to generating profit
to have a good time
to make more money as/if required.
Praps lots of organisations get the second and third in this list the wrong way around? Work, and indeed daily life, should be good albeit with sh#t bits. If it's sh#t with occassional good bits - time for a change.









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[tcm]

Re: missing the point

i agree- except that it is hard work only being happy when things go alrioght, doing some sailing etc, no?

Isn't a key thing is to be happy - even derive happiness - when there's no sailing, and even if just quite ordinary things happen, like a leaf falling off a tree, and when it chucks it down with rain.

Anyway, i think that jimi is masquerading as powerskipper at the moment and needs a good kicking.






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[Twister_Ken]

Plagiarism

David Hume, an 18th Century North Briton

Smug looking git.

Is smugness an inevitable corollary of happiness? Discuss with reference to George W Bush.

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[Evadne]

Re: missing the point

I did think that this was a suspiciously warm and fluffy sort of post for Jimi. Maybe he's just following the old adage of always being nice to your friends once in a while, just to keep them on their toes.

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[tcm]

Re: missing the point

So, are we agreed that duffing up jimi for being a wuss wd make us happy? or perhaps just the THOUGHT of duffing him up makes us happy? I think we're defintely getting somewhere here.

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[dralex]

Re: missing the point

It would have to be a virtual duffing, unless we could arrange a contract hit.

Perhaps Jimi's just having and introspective day.

<hr width=100% size=1>Life's too short- do it now./forums/images/icons/wink.gif

 

[Twister_Ken]

Utter gonads

>The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness.<

Certainly that's not what drives political leaders. It's the attainment of power, and sod the consequences.

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[Ships_Cat]

Wet and cold or if not hot and sunburnt, uncomfortable, worry, sometimes fright, expensive, sometimes drowning, slow, etc. Yep all the things that bring happiness.

John

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[Evadne]

Re: missing the point

I expect we could arrange a virtual hit. PM him a virus or something? Mind you that might only make us virtually happy.

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