Cheesiest Answer: Be happy
As human beings, we want nothing more out of life than simple, pure happiness. It makes everything better and, with it in our lives, the world could not seem any more brighter or surreal. That’s the end goal in life: joy, pleasure, excitement, elation. But the real question is: what is the key determinant of happiness? Health, wealth, and relationships certainly have something to do with it.
Category 1: Health
Most General Answer: Be healthy.
Supporting Answer: Have a healthy and really long life.
“Do you really want to get what you’re asking for?” Answer: Live forever.
Surface-level Answer: Be skinny.
Surface-level and Unrealistic Answer: Be skinny and eat as much as I want.
Certainly, health is crucial in life and, similarly, to happiness. You must be healthy to be alive to live life. However, there is a certain (thin) line that divides health and looking good (for appearances). Many are more concerned about their outward complexions (beauty, being skinny, having abs) simply to please others than their physical health (proven by answers like “be skinny”). In reality, however, we grow old and ugly and frail and none of this vanity exists anymore. Appearances don’t matter in the long run (in any area of life), but well-being certainly does.
Category 2: Relationships
Nice Answer: Have healthy friends and family.
Okay Answer: Have nice children.
“Last Resort” Answer: Get a boyfriend.
More Specific Answer: Have three boyfriends-- all of them celebrities.
Human contact and connections makes life worthwhile. Having fun with others. Creating new memories and reminiscing on old ones. And perhaps seeing yourself make a tremendous and heartwarming impact on another individual. Without company, who would bring a smile to your face?
Category 3: Wealth
Workaholic but Lazy(ish) Answer:Have my dream job (can be specified to be surgeon, lawyer, etc.)
“Extra” Answer: Buy my dream house-- ginormous, extravagant, with a pool, etc..
Unnecessary answer: Have unlimited money… but only for travel.
Greediest Answer: Have unlimited money.
These last wishes exemplify the inner materialistic and greedy side in all of us. It shows how important of a role money takes on in all of our lives. With “in want of it” or rather in lack of it, we have a premeditated thought that we would be doomed. After all, everything costs-- costs money. So, we spend all of our lives working dreadful jobs to be “happy” and not be hungry. As Hazlitt demonstrates in “On the Want of Money”, continuously aiming for more money does not really create happiness but dread and agony. So, wealth and consumerism is not the true key to a lifetime of delight.
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