Must our achievements benefit others in order to make us truly happy?

From a young age, we are taught that we should pursue our own interests and goals
in order to be happy. However society today places far too much connection
between individual happiness and benefits. In order to achieve true happiness, we
must help others and devote ourselves to our community. Although, temporary
happiness may be attained through high personal gain, but this happiness wouldnt
be true. No matter what we may receive, happiness wouldnt last long unless our
achievements benefit other people.
People achieve small, temporary happiness through personal gain. People have
always expressed happiness for the smaller things in life, such as finding a ten
dollar note on the ground to receiving a birthday gift. These things can definitely
lead to a temporary state of happiness, with the person receiving the presents
feeling better about themselves. My friend experienced this when he had been
studying for a test he was going to take, spending time and effort into the subject,
to find that after he had taken the test, he had received a high score. It wasnt hard
to see his happiness, however small. He achieved his small happiness through
receiving.
On the other hand, benefiting others also leads to happiness. With people helping
others, they can find that they can become happier from others happiness. People
find that the people they help give off an almost contagious happiness. This
happened to me when I decided to help one of my peers with their essay. She had
been consistently failing to produce results that would have resulted in a pass grade
so I did my best to help her. Upon studying with her for a few hours and seeing her
finish the essay with a passing grade, I was happy, knowing that my efforts had
gone to a good cause. This happiness was made from benefiting others.
Small happiness is only temporary, true happiness can last forever. By doing their
best to help others for the better, people can achieve true happiness that lasts.
Changing the people of the world by benefiting them is definitely grounds for
experiencing true happiness. Conducting research on diseases, solving world
hunger or creating a vaccine all benefit the world positively, resulting in an
altogether, better world. The happiness people receive from realizing a new world
would certainly be long lasting as the world would go on with its new found benefits.
Although we can pursue our own interests and goals to achieve temporary
happiness, the way to achieve true happiness is by helping others. Helping others
isnt only limited to the narrow effect of the people around you, but also the wider
effect of helping the world around you. True happiness can only come from
benefiting other people.

Is having too many choices a problem?

People are always entitled to their free choice in doing what they want in life. There
are a lot of choices in life as a result of the need of freedom in everything. Although
the freedom in choices can be liberating, it can also be seen as confining, often
confusing people on what they should pursue. People are presented with always
having the choice to choose what they want, but conversely, they are also hindered
by the sheer amount of choice and time constraints.
The number of choices lets people choose to do what they want in life. This allows
people branch away from a certain stereotype, changing up their hobbies and way
of life. There is always choice from skydiving to model kit building and writing.
People can have their own choice to choose anything. I myself, find joy in being able
to do my curricular activities through school, while also managing to do
performance arts outside of school, including musicals, concerts and soirees. This
amount of selection of choices provides me with satisfaction that I have done what I
wanted to do.
Although people now have the choice to do what they want, we really dont have
the time to spend in achieving so many choices. I know one of my friends had to go
through this because of all the extra-curricular activities he participated in outside
of his schooling life. He had also done dance performance, participated in musical
activities as well as a few sports outside of his already hectic schooling life, and as
such, found that there simply wasnt enough time to do everything he had wanted
to. Having too many choices to make and choose can be very consuming for us, and
in the end, the choices can make us tired and exhausted.
People can also be confused by the amount of choice they are presented with.
When there is simply too much to choose from, people can be stuck through
indecision, essentially stopping them from making any choice at all. When I first
wanted to take up some hobbies, I already harbored many interests, ranging from
building small model kits to singing and doing Taekwondo outside of school so I was
really at a fork in the road on which path I should take. In the end, I found that I had
wasted my time by doing nothing as there were so many things I chose and I did not
know which one to start on.
Although having choices is a good thing for people as we have more to fulfill our
lives, too many choices can often be seen to be time consuming while making
people feel tired and exhausted which betrays the essence of having fun when we
make the choice.

Section C: Sports sponsorship and fast-food companies

In Rona Macniven and Bridget Kellys article on fast-foods prevalence in sports
sponsorship, written on October 2 2012, argues the point that fast-food, has an
unhealthy influence on children and as such, should not be advertised in sporting
events. The tone of the article starts off as fear raising and shifts into serious and
analytical. The two comments replying to the article are written by Eli and
Nutritionist on the same date, with Elis tone starting off as laid back and ending off
as accusatory. Nutritionists tone is much like the articles, intending to cause fear.
The stakeholders that are affected by this article and its comments include parents
that have children that participate in sports and also advertising companies,
namely, fast-food sellers.
The author gives the impression that the popularity of sports is flooding into the
demand for fast food. The tone of the first part of the article, being the first four
paragraphs, starts off by talking about sportsmen with pride but then contrasts this
with talk of the fast-food companies with disappointment and a tinge of disgust. The
author uses the AFL and the NRL grand finals as a device to draw sports people
into the discussion by referencing the grand finals. By contrasting this with the
reference to Carlton Breweries and McDonalds the author emphasizes just how
popular both sides of the situation are. This compels the reader to note the fact that
the fast-foods promotion is fueled solely by the popularity of the sports rather than
actual necessity. In the third paragraph, the author then mentions Adam Goodes
and Dale Thomas, both highly respected sportsmen, known by all to emphasize the
fact that because they are champions, they should not be [promoting] the
products. This provides the reader with another fact that real sports stars would not
normally advocate fast-food and only do it because of the sponsorship. Finally, in
the fourth paragraph, the author makes an appeal to guilt by mentioning the
children that are afflicted by the impact of junk food advertising at their
impressionable age. This is a direct imploration to the parents of the children
affected by sports advertising, and it affects them by using their paternal instinct
against them. The wider effect this would have on the issue as a whole would be
that parents would take more care to ensure that the popularity of sport doesnt
affect their childrens perception of the popularity of fast-food.

In turn, the author gives the impression that advertisings effect on children is not
only widespread, but also extremely negative. The author uses cold facts with a
serious frightening tone to make the point. As an opener in the first subtitles first
paragraph, the author mentions WHO as authority to bring credibility to their
article with statistical evidence. Further professional statements are made when the
author notes current statistics to show how much fast-food has affected childrens
lives. This shows the reader that the problems children face in terms of the
widespread existence of childhood obesity and lack of care for health. In the last
paragraph of the first subtitle, the final statistic A study of were deemed
unhealthy highlights the seriousness of the issue and readers are further influenced
by the fast-foods impact on children. The effect this has on the reader is to shock
them into taking the authors side in the argument. Using logic and authoritarian
evidence, the author draws more credibility into the argument, making people
believe their point of view. The effect this would have is that people would feel bad
for the children that are subject to this advertising, while also becoming more
outraged against the companies that endorse the unhealthy lifestyles. The wider
effect this would have on the issue itself is that people would feel as though they
need to protect the children rather than let them be affected by the effects of sports
advertising.