The Pursuit of Happiness

Embracing eudaimonia can make our lives magical

On a transcontinental motorcycle adventure, author Jay Kannaiyan experienced eudaimonia, being his “best self” in each and every moment. (Fei Meng)

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson penned one of the most revolutionary sentences ever written: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

These words fly in the face of human history, with its dismal litany of tyrants and emperors, masters, and slaves. Today, we consider Jefferson’s pronouncement a given, like some axiom in geometry, which is in fact how he framed it. If asked, however, could we explain what he meant by “the pursuit of happiness?”

We shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves if we have trouble with that question. Search online for “What did Thomas Jefferson mean by the pursuit of happiness?” and you’ll find a dozen diverse thoughts and opinions.

Some people, for instance, might translate Jefferson’s pursuit of happiness as running after hedonistic pleasures, like children dashing to the display counter of an ice cream shop. Others might interpret it as a summons to seek material wealth, aiming to live the good life with a house in the Keys and a Mercedes roadster in the garage.

Given Jefferson’s education and temperament, however, he likely intended a more philosophical connotation, as some of those search results tell us. Let’s go with an ancient Greek word that Jefferson knew well, “eudaimonia,” and select that mouthful of vowels as his synonym for happiness.

Eudaimonia essentially means a life well lived. It’s a form of happiness, yes, but attached to virtue and found in our best selves. The adjective “flourishing” is often associated with eudaimonia.

And now, we’re getting somewhere.

To rightly pursue a life of happiness, of eudaimonia, means awareness of two tangential circumstances. First, we experience eudaimonia in the pursuit of a goal as well as in its achievement. Consider how many older couples reminisce about the early days of their marriage, when they were living in a walk-up flat and living on beans and rice. “We were happy then,” they laugh. That’s eudaimonia at work.

On the other hand, the achievement of a goal doesn’t guarantee happiness. All too often, the pilgrim reaches the end of a quest only to find disappointment rather than a holy grail. The young woman who graduates from college and medical school and wins that long-coveted M.D., may find her success empty, an enormous let-down. She sought eudaimonia at the moment of accomplishment rather than looking for it on the trail she followed to get there.

In his TED Talk, “A Recipe for Eudaimonia,” Jay Kannaiyan describes a motorcycle trip he made from the United States back to his native India, traveling through Mexico, Latin America, and Africa. Along the way, he prepared his favorite dish, chicken curry, for his hosts. Through the joy and comradery inspired by these shared meals, Kannaiyan found moments of eudaimonia, an ideal that he describes as being one’s “best self in each and every moment.” Kannaiyan’s motorcycle trip served as his pursuit of happiness.

At the end of his talk, Kannaiyan asks: “How can you find eudaimonia in your life? It’s actually all around you. You are surrounded by things that are true, good, and beautiful. Just know that when those three ingredients are present, you are experiencing human flourishing, and you have attained a state of being that is higher than simply being happy.”

I encourage readers to watch Kannaiyan’s video. Meanwhile, here’s to a very eudaimonic day to all of you!