A Simple Truth about Happiness摘要

A Simple Truth about Happiness
Most of the time we assume happiness is a feeling having little or no control. But the opposite is true: happiness is largely under our control. To achieve a happier life, we should overcome three obstacles. The first is comparison with others. The second is images of perfection. Almost all of us have images of how life should be. The problem is that only rarely do people’s jobs, spouses and children live up to these imagined ideals. The last one is “missing t ile” syndrome. The feeling of looking at something and fixating on even the smallest flaw is just like looking up at a titled ceiling and concentrating on the space where one title is missing. However, there are two ways to get happiness. The first way is gratitude. All happy people are grateful. The second way is realizing that happiness is a byproduct of something else, for example, pursuits that give our lives purpose. Finally, the belief that something permanent transcends us and that our existence has some larger meaning can help us be happier.
Good Taste, Bad Taste
Before the age of mass production, taste used to be the province of an educated elite. But when the entire population became consumers for the first time, everybody had the opportunity to make a choice. As the novelist Arnold Bennett said, good taste might be better than bad, but bad taste is certainly better than no taste at all. And now Exercising taste is not difficult. You decide what stories you want your possessions to tell and then get on and orchestrate them. But not every story is a flattering one. However taste is not one of household hints. It is an expression of a whole system of values. So you can get it too. There are the rules of taste: refinement, restraint, appropriateness and good manners. The rules are simple. No taste is to acquiesce and act like a pygmy enchanted by beads and mirrors. And remember, taste is by no means a matter of expense.。