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Trashing Happiness

July 30th, 2007 | Happiness

there-she-is-bending-over-digging-through-someone-elses-trash-cans-malingering.jpg
Tim Ferriss suggests that we begin thinking with more precision and that a good start would be to avoid using these 10 words:

1. Happiness
2. Success
3. Should
4. Responsible
5. Realistic
6. Reasonable
7. Spiritual
8. Good/Right
9. Bad/Wrong
10. Moral

He says these words are so overused that they’re meaningless. I disagree, of course, especially about the term happiness. It doesn’t matter if other people’s version of happiness is different from mine. I don’t expect us to be having the same image and feelings when we use the term. Yes, the term is vague, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a powerful concept behind it. A concept well worth exploring and discussing. And that, of course, is the purpose of this blog.

Flickr photo by Malingering.  Creative Commons license. 

 

7 comments ↓

#1 Jessica K on 07.31.07 at 2:48 pm

Hmm, I think we would lose a lot if we stopped using some of those words. Maybe we should stop misusing them? I dunno.
Thanks for visiting my blog today! It’s always great to see someone new.

#2 Shirley on 08.26.07 at 2:21 pm

I don’t think these words are overused, they just have different meanings to different people.

#3 Peter @ Iwillchangeyourlife.com on 09.21.07 at 10:47 pm

Tim is an interesting guy. I love the irony of the title. I don’t really agree with what he says in the article – but it is certainly an article that will make me think twice before using these words.

#4 Jean on 09.22.07 at 12:23 am

Thanks for stopping by, Peter.

#5 Daz Cox on 04.03.08 at 2:57 pm

meaningless in a generic sense, but who uses happiness and success to define others anyway? It’s a personal value!

#6 Jean on 04.03.08 at 11:48 pm

Jessica, Shirley and Daz,
:) Thanks for coming by. (Sorry I’m so late in saying that, Jessica and Shirley!) I agree, happiness is personal, and that’s one reason the subject is so fascinating. How dumb would it be if we couldn’t talk about important things just because we have different definitions.

#7 tammy on 11.09.11 at 8:35 am

i’m sorry. i suppose i should deeply think about what
tim ferriss has to say about this. but that kind of picky-picky about simple semantics just makes me kind of tired.
i like the very word “happiness.” it’s fun to say.
my inner 12 year old prefers all those words.
i don’t argue with my 12 yr old. it was a very good year.

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