The Attitude That Makes for Happiness

It has been pointed out earlier that since man is a goal-striving being, he is functioning naturally and normally when he is oriented toward some positive goal and striving toward some desirable goal. Happiness is a symptom of normal, natural functioning and when man is functioning as a goal-striver, he tends to feel fairly happy, regardless of circumstances. My young business executive friend was very unhappy because he had lost $200,000. Thomas A. Edison lost a laboratory worth millions in a fire, with no insurance. "What in the world will you do?" someone asked. "We will start rebuilding tomorrow morning," said Edison. He maintained an aggressive attitude, he was still goal-oriented despite his misfortune. And because he did maintain an aggressive goal-striving attitude, it is a good bet that he was never unhappy about his loss.
Psychologist H. L. Hollingworth has said that happi­ness requires problems, plus a mental attitude that is ready to meet distress with action toward a solution.
"Much of what we call evil is due entirely to the way men take the phenomenon," said William James. "It can so often be converted into a bracing and tonic good by a simple change of the sufferer's inner attitude from one of fear to one of fight; its sting can so often depart and turn into a relish when, after vainly seeking to shun it, we agree to face about and bear it cheerfully; that a man is simply bound in honor, with reverence to many of the facts that seem at first to disconcern his peace, to adopt this way of escape. Refuse to admit their badness; de­spise their power; ignore their presence; turn your atten­tion the other way; and so far as you yourself are con­cerned at any rate, though the facts may still exist, their evil character exists no longer. Since you make them evil or good by your own thoughts about them, it is the ruling of your thoughts which proves to be your principal con­cern." (William James, The Varieties of Religious Ex­perience, New York, Longmans, Green & Co.)