What Matters More: Meaning or Happiness?

THE WISE STREET | ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: APRIL

Imagine two individuals.  

One wakes up every morning driven by purpose and ambitions bigger than themselves.  

Another wakes up content, enjoying each simplest moment without a grand plan.

Across cultures, countries and centuries, human beings have wrestled with this philosophical question: who truly is living a better life? What is the right way to live this life? Between meaning and happiness, which actually matters more?  

BASED ON YOUR FIRST INSTINCT, WHICH RESONATES MOST WITH YOU?

• MEANING
• HAPPINESS

DEFINING THE TWO

HAPPINESS

A state when nothing is missing, however, we seek and desire to fulfill the nothingness. When nothing is missing, your mind goes back to a very constant state, where no past or future intervenes. It all starts in the present, and moments begin to be recorded into memories, it exists when we got what we desire in a certain moment. If I told you I am happy, it means that at some point I was sad. Every positive thought had a seed of negative thoughts within it, which is why a lot of greatness in life comes from suffering. 

MEANING

Is the fruit of our goals tree. We plant the seed of discipline, water it with patience, and leave it to grow under the hot sun of struggle. After eagerly waiting for the fruit to ripen and fall, and then we can use that fruit in many places and get its benefit from each single way of consuming it; either by eating it, selling it, turning it into a jam, or feeding it to our lovers to get that single moment of preserving them savoring the taste of it which can get the farmer's pride and the meaning of life.

THE CORE BEHIND THE TWO

FUNFACT

Did you know... famous philosopher such as Socrates or Plato claims that the purpose of education is to attain knowledge at it ultimate goal; however, Aristotle claims that the purpose of education is to attain happiness and the goodness in life.

He believed that true happiness wasn’t simply about pleasure. Instead, he argued that the best life is one where people pursue purpose, growth and virtue, Happiness happens in the moments, whereas meaning happens in momentum and pattern. Aristotle has changed his way from his predecessors (Plato and Socrates) teaching to attain happiness and goodness. 

Even scientists split the difference between the two types of happiness:

• Hedonic Happiness depends on enjoyment, pleasure; and

• Eudaimonia Happiness depends on meaning, values and reflection.

Meaning becomes most meaningful during difficult moments, not happy ones.  

Nature has no concept of happiness or unhappiness. Most of the time, it is only our minds that we are unhappy or happy, just because we give meaning and label those moments. Things become perfect or imperfect through our desires, and the world just reflects your own feelings back at you. The tree has no reason to be right or wrong, good or bad; it is simply a choice for you to interpret them. Thus, happiness is a choice and how you associate values with happiness is a decision.  

Another thing, peace and purposes tend to coexist but can’t actually go together. Unless you are creative enough to comply with them, it all begins with your purpose. If in your internal purposes, what you want to do actually makes you happy, then you can obviously allow peace and purposes to align and coexist together. On the other hand, if things you do are actually external pressures; for example: “I have to accomplish this because person X sets high expectations of me getting it done” then you are in the red zone of either disconnect from your peace, or purposes.  

Happiness is really a default state and a very evolving thing.

All person's definitions of happiness are personal and biased; it varies and different from one person to another. The answers that work for me are going to be nonsense for you and vice versa. Whatever happiness means for me, it means something else for you; and as a result, it is very significant to sit alone and ponder what is truly your definition of happiness. Not for the rest of your life, but for these moments, at least up to this year. 

Five years ago, if you were to ask me how happy I was, I would rate a 4/10, 3/10, 7/10, it doesn’t matter. Every day, the level you value your happiness changes depends on whatever moods and definitions you want to sum up your reality of that day. And maybe, to the extent level, you might not know what actually makes you define your happiness at all. Was it the people? Was it how much you have done today that sums up your overall happiness of the day? Was it a random wave of fortunate events happening to you that evening that causes you to say, “Oh! This is the happiest day of my life”? 

Again, back to my point, I mentioned that everybody's definition of happiness is different from each other; and so is the definition of happiness we set for ourselves throughout different years. But keep in mind, happiness is a short-fleeting series of moments we have made in our lives. And for some others, who are not careful enough to set their purposes and values, they may end up confusing happiness with desire.  

As a result, it became a short-term gratification that you seek to create intense excitement, rather than a genuine place of joy. We are highly judgmental and we constantly think “i need this” or “i need that” to chase and have contentment come to us. 

THE COLLECTIVE'S TAKES

DISCLAIMBER: All responses are credited to the respective anonymous owners

ANONYMOUS I A human rights founder who built her cause in over ten languages, so the world has no excuse to look away.

Achieving meaning can bring happiness, but continuous happiness does not necessarily lead to meaning. This is not to dismiss happiness entirely because we naturally strive for happiness in everything we do as it gives us a sense of immediate satisfaction.

For me, meaning has always been tied to the gradual building of long-term confidence or self-assurance within myself. Something that develops over time rather than felt in a single moment. It’s quite easy to recognize when I feel happy, but much harder to pinpoint a moment where I feel “meaning.” Like anyone else, I am someone with goals, and I don’t shy away from pursuing them. When I achieve them, I feel happy, and I immediately push myself further, entering a continuous cycle of chasing something greater. But when that pursuit turns to repeated failure, happiness is no longer present. To me, that is where meaning lies. Happiness can exist without depth, but meaning shapes not only the person but stays with one. Unlike happiness, which feels temporary, meaning stays with me.

So, with much thinking I wouldn’t want to be constantly happy if it meant being stuck in that endless cycle of wanting more. If I had to choose, I would choose meaning, because meaning allows me to build a life that feels truly my own.

ANONYMOUS II A woman who has lived long enough to know that happiness is a choice, not a reward.

We live in a life that has a limited timeframe and are accustomed to experiencing unlimited possibilities and outcomes. Just like in the mathematical sense, the infinity symbol that is referred to as “unlimited” will always cancel the smaller limited term. Our lives are just like that; we have a whole life ahead of us, even the richest man possibly couldn't experience the best in life.

Sometimes, I’d like to believe that our nature of human beings had convinced us that we have to go through hardship in life; the struggle, battle, pain, and loss, in order to feel “worth it.” Life itself brings both the good and the bad experiences at very random times; it is inevitable to avoid them.

So, if we have some control to choose our experience, why wouldn’t we lean towards experiences that give us peace and happiness?

Peace and happiness themselves have their own wisdom and lessons that we can always take away from. To me, happiness isn’t shallow; it is an intentional choice where you are careful with how you planned out your life, where to experience, and who you surrounded yourself with.

INSIDE OUR HEADS

FROM US WRITERS' HONEST THOUGHTS

by Monaco (The co-founder)

I always believe in living your life to its greatest potential. Meaning allows you to reason, accept, and tailor definitions toward every experiences and emotions in the course of the moment. I think the good moments cannot co-exist without the bad moments. To understand and appreciate the good moments, you need at least a single bad experience, so you learn to value it and don't take the good for granted. At the end of the day, experiences and moments are just the way they are. It's up to us to label them in the good box or the bad box of life. At the very end, when both collections of moments co-exist together, I think the state of happiness reaches a constant point. You no longer seek or feel the most excitement moment from every experiences in your life. Instead, it becomes more like a stable, peaceful moments function for you to appreciate everything the life can offers to you.

by Marrakesh (The co-founder)

In my point of view, I see happiness as a human need that the brain can use it in both a good and ugly way. A quick shot of dopamine given to the brain to boost the morality of the person and reduce the painful feelings or sensation that they are facing. For some people, happiness is their choice because they have too many things happening in their life and they cannot bother to set long term goals or to endure their pain any longer. So, the people go to a place that offers an escape from the real merciless world to get a reason to live or to experience something else than their usual routine that does not give the dose of dopamine needed. For me personally, I don't prefer to choose happiness, but my emotions always driving me into this direction that does not offer me much in the future. However, I believe that happiness is essential to achieve our goals, or even just to enjoy this huge planet with an extremely number of attractions and natural sites to be seen, cuisines to be eaten, and people to meet during our short journey in life.

AS A RESULT,

Remember the two individuals we imagined at the very beginning? One driven by purpose, another is content in the moment.

Perhaps neither of them are wrong. Perhaps the questioned was never meant to be answered.

Meaning and happiness are not a competition, but a conversastion your life keeps having with itself.

So, back to your first instinct; the one you choose before you read a single word. Does it still feel true? Or has something shifted?

We had love to hear your personal takes on it by leaving your thoughts below.