Happiness and responsibility

Here is a paradox.

With great power comes great responsibility.
Wielding power seems to diminish happiness.
But happiness only comes with having to shoulder responsibility.

I have written some days ago, about how a fully paid holiday at the best resort in the world will start to wear and we will yearn for something meaningful to do. 'Meaningful' is a strange quality, made in equal parts by responsibility, a sense of achievement and a sense that the activity is worth doing, that it benefits someone or something.

Presuming that we can find a cause worth doing and strive to be good at doing the job, without a sense of responsibility happiness is likely to elude us.

The key then appears to be able to do a good job without striving for the position of power that could follow.