{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Dialog","title":"1.2 / What is true happiness?","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2154,"description":"My co-host Nick Surface was depressed for six years. All he wanted was to be happy. What got him out was the thing he stopped doing: obsessing over his own happiness. So is happiness even a worthwhile goal?\nIn Episode 1, I said I think it is. Nick wanted to know if that's actually true. My answer: everyone wants to be happy. The problem is the definition. Not happiness as a feeling. Happiness the way Aristotle, the Stoics and the Bible define it.\nIn this episode, Nick and I talk through Aristotle's εὐδαιμονία (eudaimonia), what the Stoics said you can control, why Christians say \"joy\" instead of \"happy,\" and why I hear an old Greek idea in Romans 8:28.\nIs happiness a worthwhile goal?\nMost of us never ask. The fact that we never consider it shows how important it is to each one of us. If it matters that much, we need a clear definition.\nWhat did Aristotle mean by happiness?\nHis word was εὐδαιμονία (eudaimonia), human flourishing: a person who, by reason, lives in accordance with virtue. The Greeks called excellence ἀρετή (aretē), and Aristotle called a life spent chasing amusement childish.\nWhat is the difference between joy and happiness?\nMost of us mean feeling happy: the paycheck came, your team won, nothing went wrong. My working definition of joy is the knowledge that everything's working out for my good (Romans 8:28).\nWhat can you actually control?\nThe Stoics landed on three things: your thoughts, your attitudes and your actions. My honest answer to why more things don't work out: \"It's because I don't control what I can control very well.\"\nHow do you build a happier life?\nTrust that what you can't control is working out for your good. Then bring discipline and effort to what you can. Think on what is always right, good and true (Philippians 4:8). Nick summed it up with something a friend of ours says all the time: God is sovereign, man is responsible.\nScriptures\nRomans 8:28-29 · John 1:1, 14 · John 14:6 · Philippians 4:8 · 1 Timothy 6:10 · Ecclesiastes...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/7YsfA4gq5VzjhvmKvDET1pQqT0OM6yxv1laklKclR7g/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS83ZWZh/MTRmZDEzOWRjZGQz/Y2M2NThkNzYwOTJj/ODA4MC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}