There is a secret to life that is so simple, yet so elusive, and it is this: all the life that has ever existed, in every corner of the universe, has one primary purpose – to find happiness. What is happiness? Happiness is: a full belly, a warm, safe home, a loving family, a content, calm mind, to produce worthwhile things or engage in meaningful activities, to bear and raise children (for some), good friendship and companionship, and to find love. This is true of all life, even animals, even plants and bacteria. 

Aristotle believed that all desires existed as a way of obtaining happiness. He advocated four types of happiness:

• Laetus: Short-lived, material pleasures
• Felix: Achieving honour, reward or recognition
• Beatitudo: Stimulation from intellectual pursuits and learning 
• Sublime Beatitudo: the greater good – associated with higher purpose and fulfilment beyond oneself

In this way, pleasure and happiness progress from the superficial to the deep and meaningful. He described a ‘Golden Mean’, which was the balance between deficiency and excess. In this way, we are unhappy when we are hungry, but also when we are too full and have ate too much. 

If you think about this, it has profound implications. Those that have high expectations are always going to find happiness harder to attain. Those that have lower expectations will be happier more often. It’s a beautiful, simple truth of life.