Success Happy - Is personal happiness the most important thing in life?

Is personal happiness the most important thing in life?

I believe this should be everyone's first priority in life. Social contribution, having children, getting married - these are all great things, but they should not come at the expense of your personal fulfillment in life. I challenge you to come up with something more important than happiness.

Public Comments

True happiness is making yourself happy by making others happy. Its a continuous circle.
Everything else we aim for is eventually for the purpose of pursuing happiness. It's human nature to enjoy happiness and we often even find happiness in the enjoyment of being miserable. I agree, there's nothing more important than happiness. Everything else is dependent on a person to find happiness in, where as happiness is something everyone enjoys regardless of what it is that makes them happy.
No it is not for me. For me macaroni and cheese with a crusty layer is very important. But that makes me happy so that is important. Of course so does rocky road ice cream. Money can make you happy. You can't buy love with money, but you can rent some first class affection. That would make a lot of people happy.
personal happiness is defined differently with each individual. while getting married and having children may be happiness to one, it's a nightmare to another. we have to travel and observe our own path to find out what our happiness is, and not compare it to the ideals or accomplishments of others.
God is the true happiness, trust me.
Your challenge is on happiness in general but you prefixed it with personal happiness. Personal happiness is a selfish motive and it can fool you into making you believe that you are happy. I believe you are implying that self gratification with things you enjoy, whether they be for the moment or for a slightly longer period of time, should not be hampered with such distractions as marriage, children, or social contributions. It sounds as though you are rationalizing spending for yourself with going out, dating, having sex, etc. without having to be burdened with other social responsibilities. You can be happy for the moment but eventually, that type of happiness will dissipate. I don't think there is anything greater than seeing a child grow up and sharing the fruits of your efforts with family and friends. Giving to others and being part of the community can ultimately lead to the greatest happiness. And that can translate to your own personal happiness without being selfish.
Firstly .. define personal happiness... because if it is satisfying personal wants and living life purely as YOU want because it makes you feel good .. then the answer is HELL NO!!! If though it is about obtaining understanding and learning and awareness .. .and by doing that you recieve personal happiness then YES I agree with you .... this is something that is on my mind a lot .. it would be all to easy for a person to just live their life for personal satisfaction and happiness... without considering others or consequence....I know a few people who have/are currently doing it .. and while it might seem a fantastic idea .. there are consequences .. that THEY won't suffer but their kids will .. I think .. responsibility for those you are responsible for SHOULD come before personal happiness....you select to bring kids into the world then YOUR personal wants that would make YOU happy should take a back seat to seeing that your Kids' NEEDS are met first .. then by all means seek some personal happiness ... OR DON'T HAVE THE KIDS IN THE FIRST PLACE... I do believe though ... if you are for real about personal happiness .. seeing your child's NEEDS being met ... WOULD be a step into achieving personal happiness... .SO if you are just you .. .and your steps to personal happiness won't cause any harm to others . .then YES .. that's pretty important ...BUT if there are others involved .. then Consideration and responsibility SHOULD come first ... sorry to be a wet blanket BUT that's just how I feel
Well, I would definitely not put happiness as first priority. Although you can vaguely say any decision I make is due to it making me happy. I believe everyone's first priority should be survival. Then being able to make decisions on your own. Then what makes you happy. Plagarism?
NO! THE GLORY OF GOD is the most important in one's life. It is because GOD is our life, our hope, our promise of eternal life, our faith, our redeemer, our refuge, our wealth, our health, our happiness, our friend, our brother, our sister, our FATHER, OUR MOTHER, and for that matter GOD is everything. Thus, pray the prayer for asking as folllows: O LORD I ONLY ASK WHAT WLLL GIVE YOU MORE GLORY. DECIDE FOR ME (US ) AMEN. --THANK GOD; FEAR GOD; PRAISE GOD; GLORIFY GOD; HONOR GOD;LOVE GOD AND WORSHIP GOD.
If a person is not content and happy within themselves, Then they are not much good to anyone else in their life.... So yes!! I do believe personal happiness is very important in order to live a productive healthy life,.It help others around them, especially their loved ones so everyone benefits!! I cant come up with anything different as I believe as you do!! Take Care Jean
no.... it is something like the laws of math...there there, though you do not always have to use them....That is one thought...like there has to be some sort of balance... You could want everybody to do everything for you...though since we live in a monarcy government we trade goods and deeds to make other people feel happy...So to do one good thing is to to good for another. another is that what ever basic fundamentals make up happiness is important, like say, Ice cream makes you happy...so milk is a fundamental also is cold and sugar and so on....and the those fundamentals are cow then grass...and so on...That would be the underlying happy things in life. Though say...The well being of an entire World is more important then ones happiness...If killing a person is bringing happiness...It would be an epidemic and it would have to put to a stop.
I believe to achieve personal happiness,first you must aquire Inner Peace...
why is it that...having children,getting married is something which is not a part of personal happiness or satisfaction? they are parts of personal happiness....oh well....it should be. and i think, the idea of "personal happiness" changes as you live and experience life. today personal happiness may mean something, tomorrow it might mean something else to you. so don't be too sure about the importance of personal happiness. :)
I know I am truly happy when I forget myself completely.... in that sense, my personal happiness depends on forgetting myself rather than being concerned about myself..... this perhaps is indicative of the possibility that there is hardly any divergence between the two apparently opposing goals of personal fulfillment and service to humanity. That seems to me as the ultimate truth of our life. Trust you will find this as an interesting proposition at the least.
Hear that thumping sound? It's Darwin turning in his grave. Happiness is just an intellectual form of pleasure. It is by itself completely meaningless. Pleasure/Pain evolved to draw/drive the organism to/from behaviors that enhance/diminish it's survival. We don't have sex because of pleasure, we have pleasure to make us have sex. Pleasure by itself is meaningless. It's significance lies in capacity to drive us toward reproduction. Happiness evolved as the intellectual pleasure that drives us toward biological success. E.g. marriage, children, social contribution. We don't have children because it makes us feel happy, we feel happy because it makes us have children. Opium makes people happy. Yet we consider Opium users tragic, because their Opium happiness is divorced from any genuine success. Marriage, children & Social contribution ARE the fulfilment of life. Happiness is significant ONLY because it drives us towards these things.
"Happiness is the successful state of life, pain is an agent of death. Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values." If "social contribution, having children, [and] getting married" are your values, you must attempt to achieve them. But you contrast them with "your personal fulfillment in life." Many would say these ARE their means of fulfillment. But if they are not yours, you must still attempt the achievement of your values, no matter what they are. "But neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims. Just as man is free to attempt to survive in any random manner, but will perish unless he lives as his nature requires, so he is free to seek his happiness in any mindless fraud, but the torture of frustration is all he will find, unless he seeks the happiness proper to man. The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live."
Not really. Personal happiness is all too self-driven. To achieve definite and personal goals in life is respectable, but to state outright that "I seek my own happiness foremost" invites too many chances for trampling on others for our own happiness. When we consider others' genuine personalities and appreciate others, this process yields the greatest doses of happiness. These genuine interactions create a sense of universality of human aims and hopes and we are able to bond in a very basic yet fulfilling level. I find this true when I care for patients because I'm a nurse. I find these interactions to comfort others in distress and medical acuity highly satisfying. To say that I do this work for my own personal happiness would be a terrible and underhanded accusation. I provided this example to show you that even when we are not focused on our own happiness, we gain some of the most memorable moments of happiness . We are fulfilled only in some communal and cooperative bond with others. If we seek personal happiness foremost, we would leave a lot of people hurt because this mechanism of happiness necessitates trampling on others---with or without awareness. I am intuiting that you did not mean that we should seek our own happiness only, but as a prerequisite ot providing others happiness as well (from the looks of your question). There's an element of truth that when we seek to establish our own selves in finances, competence, character refinement, etc, we can provide our services rather than solely receive and be needy of others. If this is your aim, it may one of our most (humanly shared) important and private goals.
Happiness is a byproduct of how you live not a goal in itself. The most important thing is being in God's Kingdom and living his way and not our own. This world is not my eternal home. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. This life is not about you and the world does not revolve around your small mindedness nor mine for that matter
I would never put my ""Personal happiness"" first...And I disagree with you. To the contrary of what you say, you must give "first" in order to "receive". At the last sentence, you come up with "happiness" at large! You're not specific. Or you still consider that own personal happiness is first and foremost. I disagree with this statement.