(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

Carmen and Erik had a problem being happy. They thought that the purpose in life was to feel happy, and they thought that they knew what they needed to do in order to be happy. However, when they did it, they still weren’t as happy as they expected to be.

A psychologist explained a big reason why it is not effective for people like Eric and Carmin to chase happiness. If our goal is to feel an emotion (for example, happiness), and if we don’t feel as we had expected to feel, we will think that there is something wrong with us.

However, researchers say that we can prepare ourselves to have positive experiences without the disappointments. (See complete article below.)

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see  • Introducing “Short, High-Interest Readings”  Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: ESL Reading> Short, High Interest Articles for Extensive Readings

Here is the seventh article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

 The Problem with Chasing Happiness

Carmen and Erik had a problem being happy. They thought that the purpose in life was to feel happy, and they thought that they knew what they needed to do in order to be happy. However, when they did it, they still weren’t as happy as they expected to be.

A psychologist explained a big reason why it is not effective for people like Eric and Carmin to chase happiness. If our goal is to feel an emotion (for example, happiness), and if we don’t feel as we had expected to feel, we will think that there is something wrong with us.

However, researchers say that we can prepare ourselves to have positive experiences without the disappointments.

We will have a better chance at feeling satisfaction if our most important goal isn’t happiness. For example, Eric was sure that if he got accepted to a high-ranking university, he would be happy all the time. A better goal for going to the university would be to learn more about different subjects, or to discover what he wanted to be in the future, or even to meet new people.

Also, when Carmen was planning a trip to Europe, instead of imagining how happy she would feel while she was there, it would be better to have goals of visiting a famous museum or experiencing a festival or practicing a foreign language.

One possible reason for their disappointment could be their high expectations. Researchers studied people who were preparing to celebrate New Year’s Eve 2000. Many people had high expectation because 2000 seemed to be a special year. Before December 31, the researchers asked people how happy they expected to be and how much time they spent planning for the celebration. A few weeks later, they found that 83% of the people were disappointed with the celebration. Interestingly, they found that the more happiness the people expected to have, the more disappointed they were in the end.

A researcher studied people who are often trying to find happiness. She found that those types of people tend to actually be less mentally and emotionally healthy than other people. In fact, they tend to have higher levels of depression. In other words, the more these people are trying to be happy, the less happy they are.

Interestingly, chasing happiness can increase anxiety. When we are not experiencing the happiness that we expected, we start to worry that we are “missing out.” In other words, we think that we are wasting time and should be doing something else that would make us happier.

The psychologist explained a big reason why chasing happiness is not effective. We don’t actually know what will make us truly happy. Therefore, instead of only thinking about something that we think will cause us to be happy, it more effective to think about helping other people become happy. That is a goal that can truly help us find happiness.

Here is the link to the article and exercises that you can use with your students: Problems Pursuing Happi ARTICLE EXERCISE

David Kehe
Faculty Emeritus

*About the free-download materials. During my 40 years of teaching ESL, I have had many colleagues who were very generous with their time, advice and materials. These downloads are my way of paying it forward.