Naming the sources of happiness is one of the trickiest businesses. The challenge comes in when you want to divide things up. People are confused about whether to concentrate on relationships, community, friends, family, or love. Various researchers utilize different ideas, and there is hardly the appropriate concept to use as a source of happiness. According to Haybron(2013), we judge people’s happiness by looking at the people. In real life, societies use observable features to determine the degree of satisfaction of an individual, including spring on their steps. Do they appear tensed, tightly wound, comfortable in their environment, or do they laugh easily. In doing this, Haybron suggests that we are trying to assess the overall emotional condition. This implies that a person’s emotional condition is connected to daily thinking concerning happiness. Therefore, to be happy means to have a favorable state of one’s emotions. The essay looks into what seems to be the primary source of happiness for the protagonist Joe Fletcher in the book “Happiness: Avery Short Introduction” by Daniel M. Haybron.
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Haybron (2013) demonstrates that there are five sources of happiness that many researchers have agreed to trigger intensive happiness in people’s lives. These sources are security, outlook, autonomy, relationship, and skilled and meaningful activity. Out of all these sources, the one that I think aptly describes Joe Fletcher’s happiness is security. Fletcher understands that the plainest fundamental for happiness is that he does not have to feel threatened in life. He feels much secure in the ownership of the things that matters to him the most. While these appear like a prominent aspect on the face of happiness, Fletcher is happier today because things are better than yesterday.
Things have not been easy for Joe. He has encountered enough troubles ranging from romantic woes and financial challenges to other hardships in life. However, he has graduated from the University of hardships in life, and he is not bothered by anything anymore these days. At this stage of his life, nothing seems to threaten him as nearly everything is okay. Joe’s fishing career is performing excellently, and comparing it to his old job of carpentry, he can see some improvement as the bills are paid. Joe is not after huge cash because he has built a house for himself, and anything causing worries such as the maintenance of the boat or his trucks can attend to them by himself. Moreover, he can accomplish other things by trading with his neighbors.
Although the role of security is very much complicated than people perceive it, Joe finds his own approaches to surviving through different forms of insecurity. Joe is not affected by physical risks as he has no anxiety or any insecurity. He lives very well with his neighbors. Haybron (2013) explains that Joe can get the things he does not have in life by trading with his neighbors. Fishing is not the world’s best job, but Joe is more satisfied with it more than he did with his carpentry job. He prefers fishing to carpentry because his bills are settled on time, and he no longer has romantic fracases.
From Joe’s story, it is seen that the security that matters in life is the perceived happiness or felt security. Three types of security are precursors for happiness. The first security is material security. We can see Joe is satisfied with the little materials he gains from his fishing career. Haybron (2013) warns that wealth can result in material insecurity, raising expectations, inflaming the appetites, and inciting us to high living. This makes people needier, more susceptible to disappointments, anxiety, and frustrations. The second chief form of security is social- feeling secure within the community and in the presence of one’s relationship. Seeing how other people relate to you is an essential form of security that leads to satisfaction and reduced physical boost insecurities. Connecting well with fellow business people serves as an improvement in Joe’s ventures. He says, “What I do not have I get by trading with people.” This means he has trust in the community he comes from.
Another social security element that supports Joe’s happiness is eradicating the romantic battles he has been facing previously. He feels safe and happier to be in the company of his wife. The third type of security is project security. This form of safety refers to the feeling secure amid the success of one principal activity. By projects Haybron, (2013) refers to goals or commitments with which people identify themselves – they are part and parcel of your sense of self. Through fishing, Joe is happy to have achieved much than in the past. As a result of fishing project, he can pay his bills, have financial security, no more love fights, have a house built by his own efforts, and repair his boats and trucks without seeking anyone’s intervention. These are the key factors that cultivate Joe’s well-being.
In conclusion, security is the chief cultivator of Joe’s happiness. Joe maximizes the three security elements- material security, social security, and project security to reach the maximum of his happiness. Due to this satisfaction in the security level surrounding Joe, he accomplishes many things, unlike in the past when he depended on carpentry. While carpentry is a more lucrative profession than fishing, Joe finds happiness in the latter due to having little worries and being satisfied with the little things he gets from his hustle. This means that happiness is hidden in the small things we have achieved and avoiding concerns about the things that are out of reach at the moment.
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