I
read the composition online, its title is Does
Trying to Be Happy Makes Us Unhappy?. The author is Adam Grant, Wharton
professor. In the first paragraph, the introductory paragraph, the author
mentioned that citizens in the United States are granted three inalienable
rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And he also mentioned a
country, Bhutan. I think it is very interesting. Because Bhutan is famous for
the index of happiness. It is ingenious to take the kingdom of Bhutan for
example. He also used a question that if searching for happiness actually prevents
us from finding it. I think it is an affirmative sentence that Adam wanted to persuade
us but not a question. And he told us that there is a reason. In the next
paragraph, he gave an example again; Tom is the character. It let his idea be convincing!
For one thing, the author mentioned
the word study. It means there are some
studies that can prove the idea. However, he talked about Tom , a savant who can speak many languages.
Adam described Tom vividly when he said Tom speaks half a dozen languages, from
Chinese to Welsh. In the beginning of Tom's story, Adam told us Tom was
unsatisfied in the college time when he found he did not want to major in the
computer science actually. Then, Tom became obsessed with happiness. He always
wanted to pursue his ideal career and the culture he thought perfectly match
for his interests and values. It is related to the topic. Tom is a person who
tried to be happy. There are a lot of details about Tom's experience for
changing his jobs and place he lived.
The careers and
countries couldn't fulfill him. He moved to many countries and changed his jobs
as long as he felt the path couldn't make him happy. On the other hand, even if
he found he was suitable for the job he didn't like the country or the culture
such as Beijing's. So he kept moving to other countries because he hoped to
make himself happy. In addition, Tom even worked on a website to help couples
spend more quality time together. Unfortunately, he failed to feel happy. There
are many details about Tom's story in the paragraphs.
In the fourth
paragraph, the author just talked about reasons Tom couldn't feel happy. It
also told us why a person who trying to be happy make himself or herself
unhappy even though he or she tries hard. From the fourth paragraph to the
eighth paragraph, Adam wrote the main body finally! He indicated that the first
mistake of Tom was trying to figure out if he was happy. Adam said when we
pursue happiness, our goal is to experience more joy and contentment. But when
we are making progress, we also need to compare our past happiness to our
current happiness. I agreed with the idea. Adam then mentioned Csikszentmihalyi
and a flow state. It makes the composition convinced too. The second error was in
overestimating the impact of life circumstances on happiness. The third
misstep was in pursuing happiness alone. It noted that a study shows the
greater the value people placed on happiness, the more lonely they felt every
day for the next two weeks. At the eighth paragraph, Adam said that The
final mistake was in looking for intense happiness. It is the most
important part for the topic. Sometimes we may forget to cherish everything we
have. If we are always looking for intense happiness, we will become very
unsatisfied. Adam adds some details to support the main idea.
Finally, instead of
pursuing happiness alone, Tom fell in love and got married. Tom became happy because he followed the advice of psychologists Ken
Sheldon and Sonja Lyubomirsky: "Change your actions, not your
circumstances." Tom don't evaluating his happiness daily and
hunting for his dream job. He is finding flow and experiencing daily
satisfaction in helping his wife set up a company. The author gave us a
very relevant example, Tom's story. I think it is a good composition. It is
very detailed and easy for me to read. I can totally understand the idea and the
author's viewpoints. As the great philosopher John Stuart Mill once wrote,
"Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than
their own happiness." This ending is also a good quote that is
connected to the topic.
(754) 99211416 Lily Lu ( total words - 2091 )
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