Are you happy? Or are you just comfortable with you life?
There’s a big difference between comfort and happiness: being happy means that you are overjoyed about what you’re doing, who you are, the people you’re meeting and the things that you’re doing. Being comfortable means that you’re not feeling too bad or too good. You are someplace in the middle. When we are comfortable the common response to “How are you is?” is the typical, “I’m fine.” Neutral is what suburbs are for. Comfort is for people who are looking to relax, not to grow and learn and experience new things.
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
It’s a cliché that “you can’t buy happiness”, but at the same time, financial security is among most people’s top career priorities. Moreover, when people are asked what would most improve the quality of their lives, the most common answer is more money. Most of us feel a better quality of life would bring more joy.
The obvious appeal of the idea is that money can buy happiness in the sense that it can provide for basic necessities and stability. And not just for ourselves, but also to provide for our families. This would mean that multi billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are much richer and happier than the rest of us. From reading the news, we all know that these billionaires still have struggles in life. They are just different challenges than most of us can even fathom. So more accurately, I ask you if you are happy with the money that you are currently making and what it allows you do in your life?
What does happiness mean to you?
I want to make a lot of money. I am not afraid to admit that I believe that having access to more money would, no doubt, make me happier. Making more money would allow me to:
- Buy more experiences and fewer material goods. That is, spend $$ on leisure activities—vacations, adult-education classes, concert tickets—instead of on more stuff. Experiences stay with you, but we adapt to possessions quickly so their pleasure wears off.
- Spend money on others. Giving money or gifts strengthens social bonds, which amplify happiness, and activates brain areas associated with receiving rewards. Being able to help out my mom in the future is also high on my reason for wanting to have a higher income.
“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” – Henry David Thoreau
Happiness is something that I have struggled with most of my adult life. But recent years, my brain tumour experience changed my perspective on what happiness would be in my life. Are you happy? Used to scared me, because I didn’t think that I was. However, I discover that we can learn to be happy. Sitting down on a beach in Mexico I shared how You can Learn to be Happy.
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