The final month has begun and many things are going well. Demands of the job have settled down and Summerlicious went better than planned. Academically, my paper Skunk Redux will be published in October 2012 and I have maintained my standing. And considering the tumultuous summer of 2011, the YOY figures are robust. Yet it is clear that I have not caused any achievement since January 2012. Summerlicious is certainly no accomplishment, my paper has been due for a year and my academic standing was more or less the result of Comm 190. Interesting in the world of GPA, success will be determined by a few highly exclusionary courses.

Happiness must weigh effort (cost) versus achievement (benefit). You can always work a little harder to get a little more. But does that make you happier? I’d argue no. So happiness might stem from outsized benefit for what little effort you put in. If you could achieve the same thing but one scenario requires five years instead of three, you’d likely choose the three. You’d likely be much happier. That is to say anything you deserve should not make you happy.

This brings up the question that what is really earned? I owe much to society, upbringing, socioeconomic status and luck. What I do myself is actually a very small piece of the pie.

The realization is that I am only happy (for now) because I have achieved a return greater than the normal rate of return for my effort. Yet I suppose it is simply a fact of life that returns are affected by things completely outside your control. So not to be defeatist, I will conclude to say that a sure way to be unhappy is not to try and regret it latter.