Topic: Happiness is considered very important in life. Why is it difficultto define? What factors are important in achieving happiness? Give reasons foryour answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge orexperience.

　　Happiness is very difficult to define, because it means so many differentthings to different people. While some people link happiness to wealth andmaterial success, others think it lies in emotions and loving personalrelationships. Yet others think that spiritual paths, rather than either thematerial world or relationships with people, are the only way to truehappiness.

　　Because people interpret happiness for themselves in so many diferent ways,it is difficult to give any definition that is true for everyone. however, ifthere are different kinds of happiness for different individuals then the firststep in achieving it would be to have a degree of self-knowledge. A person needsto know who he or she is before being able to know what it is that makes him orher happy.

　　Of course, factors such as loving relationships, good health, the skills toearn a living and a peaceful environment all contribute to our happiness too.But this does not mean that people without these conditions cannot be happy.

　　Overall, I think an ability to keep clear perspectives in life is a moreessential factor in achieving happiness. By that I mean an ability to have aclear sense of what is important in our lives (the welfare of our families, thequality of our relationships, maing other people happy, etc.) and what is not (a problem at work, getting annoyed about trivial things, etc.).

　　Life self-awareness, this is also very difficult to achieve, but I thinkthese arethe two factors that may be most important for achieving happiness.