The standard of living, in company with the meaning of happiness, transforms over time. Happiness has been the center of hype and research for years. Society is now redefining what it is that we call happiness and where it comes from.
The concept of “happiness” was rarely taken into account by our ancestors, not to mention the prospect of the future even at a base level of comprehension. Happiness came at too high of a perceived cost to even dream about. We’re currently able to satisfy our needs with bigger and better things, and that generates happy feelings; but happiness still escapes us. Its fleeting quality leaves us wondering if we’re getting true happiness from money, food, and other material things.
A day will arrive when repetition of the cycle of desire fulfillment will be perceived as fruitless action. People won’t be impressed by material things because those items will be considered creations of limited human wisdom and restricted human creative ability.
If we understand that happiness means more than just being satisfied with the material world, can the material world make us happy? By material world here, I mean the level of the 5 senses. Normally we try to stimulate happiness with pleasure that triggers these senses. We all know that kind of happiness is totally unsustainable, yet temporarily pleasing.
With all this talk about sustainable living, we really ought to be asking about sustainable happiness (next blog).
Because we’re getting a better idea of the future attributes of happiness, those who can adapt the quickest and master the new happiness have the edge in achieving success and health in the decades to come. This may stretch you a bit: in the future, if you’re not happy, you simply won’t exist here. One day, the only beings inhabiting the earth will be unconditionally happy.
I work with a research team that has proven that sustainable happiness is well within reach. In fact, it’s closer than we think. But there’s more to come about that and other cutting edge findings in my next blog.
Smiles,
Posted by Chad McMahan on June 11, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I had an interesting conversation with a friend last week. She said she didn’t feel like “a real adult” I asked her to elaborate a bit, at which point she listed off her “achievements” (owning property, marriage, $ in the bank, nice car, nice clothing, white picket fence, etc). Then she looked at me and asked if I felt like “a real adult”. I answered her question via defining “a real adult”. Later I had the epiphany that she wasn’t asking about maturity or adulthood. She was asking me about happiness.
She (like most people) has spent a great deal of mental, emotional, spiritual and physical effort to acquire more and more of the “things” she has been raised to think define someone’s value. She subconsciously thinks as she gains more of these “things” she will lose her feelings of unrest, inadequacy, etc, and gain a high degree of self-worth. And here she is, today, with financial stability at a young age and all the stuff she once wanted along with a full bag of self-doubt, instability and sadness. The more she buys the heavier her bag becomes.
I want to clarify one thing I have personally realized. There tends to be a rift between financial abundance and happiness. To clarify- people tend to believe you cannot have money, as well as happiness. There is not a 1% statistical chance to be wealthy, for example. The same applies to happiness. This does not have to be the case. Anyone and everyone can have financial abundance and happiness.
I want to end on this: Do not let your standards of happiness be the same as the unhappy people around you. Happiness is primed and ripened for the taking! Get on that train. It’s an outlandishly hilarious ride.
Thank you Jimmy for this blog. It’s terrific. I look forward to everything you will write.