A person is born for happiness, like a bird is born for flight. These are the words in the essay “Paradox” by Vladimir Korolenko that a man, armless from birth, writes with his foot. With birds everything is more or less clear - they they flew, fly and will fly, but what should we do? Every person strives for happiness. We want happiness for ourselves. We want it for our closest and dearest people: for children, for parents, for husband, for wife. We constantly wish happiness to a variety of people on countless holidays and celebrations. It feels like our whole life is imbued with the search for happiness and the pursuit of it. But what exactly do we mean by this concept? How do we define the word “happiness” itself? What is behind it? Until we decide on what we want, it becomes impossible to get it. Remember the famous saying of Seneca: When a person does not know which pier he is heading towards, no wind will be favorable for him. When even for ourselves we cannot understand what exactly we want and what we mean by the concept of happiness, we are doomed to an endless pursuit of him, which will not be successful. It’s the same as “Go there, I don’t know where, bring something, I don’t know what.” A completely logical step that follows from what has been said will be the following: we need to decide what is the measure of happiness for us .And then everyone answers this question to themselves with the utmost honesty. Some people need to have a close-knit family to be happy. Some people think that they will be happy if they can feel important to society and contribute to a good cause. Some people I am sure that happiness will increase noticeably with an increase in income N times. And for some, it’s enough to become the national champion in biathlon. Of course, I speak with irony, but I hope that biathletes will not be offended by me :) So, The point is that each of us can see happiness in completely different things - both in quite trivial ones (for example, good health, a friendly family) and in quite unusual ones (say, the ability to multiply five-digit numbers in the mind faster than anyone else). And now Let's be honest: How do you know that what you dreamed up for yourself will give you a feeling of happiness? Why did you suddenly decide that it would be like this? After all, now you don’t have it. You are talking about something that you just want to get, about what you intend to achieve, and about what you are going to earn. I’m not talking now about the situation when you ALREADY were happy before, then you lost everything and therefore you know what it is like to do this and that, to have such and such, and to live in a certain way. We’re not talking about that now. We’re talking about the fact that you can’t know what you’ll feel if you get everything you dream about today. — Have you become a Doctor of Economic Sciences? You’re very cool! But what has your life become? A series of trips, conferences, symposiums, monographs, scientific articles... There is no end to it, eating on the go, a terrible lack of free time, etc. - They became the highest paid employee of Gazprom after the general. director? Also quite okay... But do you see your family at least one day a week or have you forgotten that you have a husband and children? Or do you, in principle, not need a family? - Ok, maybe you have a large and friendly family? Let's say. And it’s more difficult to “undermine” here than in the two previous examples. But let’s imagine that everything turned out to be not as cloudless as you pictured it in your dreams. Let a large family become for you, if not hard labor, then at least a devourer of your whole life and an endless stream of household chores and responsibilities. Could this be? Quite. Great, now let's step back five steps and look at the main concept. It is as follows: I’m not saying that it’s bad to be a European champion in Latin American dancing, second in command at Gazprom, or have a big family. No, and again no. I’m saying that we are not able to know in advance that this or that achievement or lifestyle will give us a feeling of happiness. It’s enough to remember that “the rich also cry,” and this is confirmed