Happiness is a full tank, but it’s not the only way to go. In fact, different people achieve happiness in a variety of ways.
One definition of happiness is that it is the net excess of positive feelings over negative ones. This subjective conception of happiness is more consistent with common usage.
What is the difference between a full tank and a partial tank?
Many people define happiness as feelings like joy and gladness. Others associate happiness with success and achievement. In some cultures, however, happiness is more closely linked to family harmony and community well-being.
A fourth category of theory, called hybrid theories, attempts to strike a balance among the diverse intuitions about what happiness is. They typically identify happiness with life satisfaction and domain satisfactions, as well as positive and negative affective states.
These views differ from hedonism in that they do not require the identification of happiness with pleasant experience, and they do not endorse the stronger doctrine of welfare hedonism.
Regardless of the exact definition of happiness, most theories agree that it is a valuable state for human beings. Happiness predicts positive outcomes in areas like mental health and physical health, and it helps people build stronger coping skills. Therefore, happiness is something that everyone should actively pursue. However, it is important to recognize that happiness varies from person to person, and that even the most happy of people can experience a low mood.