A Key Insight to Remember About the Happiest People
Stanford University professor and author William Damon has many brilliant insights as one of the world’s leading researchers on finding purpose in life. In his book The Path to Purpose, Damon shares one of these brilliant insights about happiness. In short, the insight is that the happiest people don’t find happiness by doing things for themselves, it’s the opposite.
Damon writes:
The emerging discipline of positive psychology, which studies the key motivators of human happiness, and is often referred to as “happiness studies,” has shown that a sense of purpose is prominent among the list of character traits that lead to happiness. Foundational in this new area of science were a set of findings that combined the insights of psychology and economics and uncovered a number of counterintuitive truths about happiness. One of these findings is the intriguing paradox that the happiest people are rarely those who expend a lot of effort trying to attain pleasure for themselves.
Unquestionably, the next time you are pondering a moment of unhappiness you should reflect on Damon’s words. If you want to be happy, it’s unlikely to come from doing something just for yourself. Instead, your best shot at finding happiness is to do something that you both enjoy and is in service of others.