Jane Mcgonigal The Four Secrets To Making Our Own Happiness Analysis

Happiness. A sensation that is not of any materialistic value, but above all else in the world, it is a common asset that society continuously pursues to achieve. But how does one know if they possess true happiness? Is it just a feeling? And if someone does not feel happy, how can they go about achieving that feeling? These questions can be answered through analysis of two writings: the essay The Four Secrets to Making Our Own Happiness by Jane McGonigal and the song Better Than by The John Butler Trio. These literary pieces approach a common idea as how to achieve perpetual contentment with one’s life. With intentions to allow their audiences to evaluate his or her own life view of happiness, both pieces persuade their audiences through different

By taking an intellectual stance on the dynamics that are rewarding to true happiness, McGonigal expresses to her audience that intrinsic rewards are the sole purpose of real pleasure in life. These rewards cause positive emotions, personal strengths, social connections, and give meaning to one’s life. Through knowledgeable tone, McGonigal develops an explanation of how to achieve eternal contentment with scientific understanding; she states that the human brain produces neurochemicals that allow that person to feel emotions: pleasure, satisfaction, love, and all additional related to happiness (McGonigal 2007). She continues her intellectual approach on happiness with revealing by her positive-psychological analysis suggesting “that intrinsic rewards fall into four categories”(McGonigal 2007 p 368). The first category humans crave work that gratifies the effort that he or she put in to that activity. Secondly, there is a craving for the experience of success to a reveal what one is good at doing. Thirdly, there is desire to experience social connections during moments that have special meaning to that person. Lastly, humans lust for meaning in life. “These four kinds of intrinsic rewards are the foundation for optimal human experience”(McGonical 2007 p 371). Therefore, the only person that can allow that person to feel eternally happy is himself or herself

He states that “you could be better than that don't let it get the better of you” (Butler 2007). This reveals his belief that to be happy his audience must overcome the jealousy he or she may encounter of other people, and by not allowing his or her experience to be depreciated because someone else’s experience was dissimilar. He continues to persuade with, “Get your gaze off tomorrow and let come what it may”(Butler 2007). This is Butler expressing to his audience that in order to be happy they must stop worrying about the experiences that are to come in the future, and just let whatever is in store for the future happen. He pursues in influencing his audience by repetition of key phrases throughout the song. The line, “you could be better than that don't let it get the better of you what could be better than now life's not about what's better than” (Butler 2007). By utilizing repetition, the goal Butler wish to portray becomes eminent in making each individual eternally happy by eliminating the stress of worrying about the situations he or she has no control