Day 4: Pursuit of Happienss

Today you will learn the secret definition of happiness presented in the Declaration of Independence, why you should pursue this particular type of happiness, and how to reach happiness in your own life.

Summary

What is Happiness?

Happiness is the favorable state of fitting one's circumstances.

• And this is exactly the meaning of happiness that Thomas Jefferson meant when he wrote it the Declaration of Independence, "we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
• Thomas Jefferson promised PURSUIT of happiness, not happiness in and of itself. He believed everyone should have the right to pursue a condition that their character, talents, and abilities and take actions towards improving their circumstances.
• It is in the pursuit that one finds fulfillment in life.

Why pursue happiness?

There's evidence to suggest that Jefferson intended the pursuit of happiness, not merely just for the individual to pursue fulfillment, but as a solution to the problem of how to provide fulfillment for everyone.

• A feedback loop exists between the individual's pursuit of fulfillment and the collective fulfillment of all members of society.
• When you're on the pursuit of your happiness and you're taking useful actions, those useful actions often give some small advantage to the others around you and by doing so, raise them as well.
• According to Jefferson, the pursuit of happiness has to do with an internal journey of learning to know ourselves and an external journey of the service to others.

So when you're pursuing happiness, you're looking for that right fit where your character, talents and abilities fit with the circumstances around you. But you're also undertaking personal accountability where it's your duty to pursue this fulfillment, because you're going to do it for others.

How to reach happiness

If you recall from our definition of purpose, where purpose is something that's meaningful to the self and consequential to the world, purpose closely relates to happiness in the pursuit of purpose.

• In the pursuit of purpose, you must discover your own interests, character, skills, and abilities in put that to service for those around you, in other words, the conditions in which you and others are living.
• So as a side effect of pursuing purpose you will reach happiness as our founding fathers intended.
• And pursuit is the right word here because you will find happiness in the pursuit, not in the final destination as the standard covenant has taught us. Its not about reaching some end goal, its about enjoying every day in the pursuit of that end goal.

For these reasons, the rest of this course is gonna help you move through the steps that we covered in the first lesson. On our path to purpose.

• We will first focus on discovering the self and your passions
• Then we will focus on discovering problems to care about, turning those passions into purpose
• And finally we will discover how you can put that purpose into practice, living a life of fulfillment, and experiencing your happiness along the way.

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Activity

Continue with the rest of the course.

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Skill Lesson Mastered

Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.