Every person has their own idea of what true happiness may look like and what they need
in their lives in order to find it. I was watching this clip of George Lucas talking
to a few students and explaining his thoughts on what sustained happiness truly is. His
explanation was really profound because it not only seems very hard to define for ourselves,
but is also extremely elusive when we are looking for it. So he discovered this along
his journey and defined it under two categories: long-term which he called joy and short-term
happiness which he called pleasure.
Pleasure is short lived. It lasts an hour, lasts a minute, lasts a month. And it peaks
and goes down. It peaks very high. But the next time you want to get the same peak, you
have to do it twice as much. It’s like drugs. You have to keep doing it because it insulates
itself. No matter what it is. Whether you’re shopping, whether you’re engaged in any
other kind of pleasure. It all has the same quality about it.
Pleasure was described as being self-serving in that its primary function was to drive
short-term satisfaction without really bringing any true value to yourself or others. It doesn’t
last very long, maybe an hour, maybe a month but It peaks and then gradually subsides.
He also said that it was additive, which means that it is really hard to replicate the happiness
that you feel when you make a purchase like your first car or eating at a fine restaurant.
The only way that you can do that is by buying a faster, more expensive car. And so that
bar for pleasure keeps getting pushed up higher and higher till you have an entire fleet of
jets, yachts and 50 luxury cars. I’m guilty of this as well, where I’ve been chasing
greater and greater achievements faster than anyone else because I would feed off of the
admiration of other people, but this does not last forever.
The point of this is that every future indulgence in your pleasure tends to be less effective
because you find yourself chasing the same euphoria you felt when you made that first
purchase. And so the constant and sole pursuit of pleasure is not very sustainable. This
could also be related to a career that you simply follow for the money or acclaim from
others, but once that door is opened, you tend to chase more and more of it in order
to be happy. Please bear in mind that there is nothing
wrong at all with pleasure and that it is necessary to keep life moving forward, make
things better and bring a sense of satisfaction to existence. However, it cannot be the only
source from which you derive gratification.
Joy is something you can recall. Pleasure, you can’t. So the secret is that even though
it;s not as intense as the pleasure, joy will last you a lot longer. Joy is compassion.
Joy is giving yourself to somebody else or something else. And it’s the kind of thing
that in its subtlety and lowness is much more powerful than pleasure. You get hung up on
pleasure, you’re doomed. If you pursue joy, you will find everlasting happiness.
Joy on the other hand never really goes as high up as pleasure does in the scale of emotional
reaction to it. It isn’t as intense but it stays with you longer. It can be as simple
as laughing with your friends and sending flowers to your loved one.
In its finest form, joy is what you feel when you are able to fulfil your purpose. That
can be through compassion or kindness that you share with others, but it can also be
through building and creating things that bring value to society. It may not give you
a kick of dopamine in the way that a fat paycheck would, but it can assure you a sustained sense
of fulfilment over the long-term.
What I would take away from this is that true bliss can be attained by setting up your life
in a way that you can positively impact the lives of others around you. You can do this
by spending time to develop a better idea of who you are and what it is about you that
is unique. Once you do that, you can bring value to one person or community of people
through a skill or service, and that has a higher likelihood of bringing you joy like
nothing else. My form of happiness has begun to shift towards enjoying the process of whatever
I’m doing and finding a way that it can make a difference to even one person. That’s
the joy that I’m trying to pursue.
The two components need to operate hand in hand to really make you happy. You just have
to try to tip the scale in favor of pursuing joy because, while pleasure may be easier
to attain through whatever means, it can sometimes be a mask for some of the pain or frustration
that one feels. So, what works for me is trying to maintain a good balance of pleasure and
joy in my life. Because you’re able to do that, it might make your odds of finding happiness
a little greater.
Alright guys, I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for being here and taking time
out of your day to watch these videos. I really hope that they’re able to bring some value
to you in your life and I really enjoy making them and sharing them with you. Drop a like
on this video if you liked it and share it with somebody who you think is trying to find happiness
and self-fulfillment and trying to grow. Thanks so much for watching. My name is Vihan Chelliah.I’ll
see you next week.