Happiness – Part 1
We seem to have a collective thought in the western world that achievement equals success. We push ourselves forwards with thoughts of inferiority and the feeling of failure. If we begin with a definition of happiness, it may well help us to actually achieve that as a goal.
The reason that pretty much anyone does pretty much anything, is because we want to it make us feel good in the long run. When it really comes down to it, there are two basic emotions, feeling good and feeling bad, and we all want to feel good because, well, who would want to feel bad? Assuming youre still with me, Ill continue. The desire to feel good tends to attach itself to the desire to go out and get new things. We believe that if we drive better cars and have nicer things that we will feel better, but lets be honest, weve all gone out and bought something and then the good feeling that comes with owning it isnt really what wed hoped.
Despite the fact that most people in the modern world believe that material possessions will make us happy, there are still millionaires who are very unhappy, and poor people who are as happier and content as you would expect the millionaires to be, but why?
The reason is that your definition of success is based on a flawed argument. We tend to compare ourselves with the most successful people that we know, which makes us feel bad. If you were to compare yourself with most of the planet, you will find that you are actually doing very well.
Contentment is a virtue that very few possess, but for the people that do, it is the reason for their inner wealth. The in-built goal in all of us is to be happy with what we have in our lives, but unfortunately, we all believe that if we have more things then we would be more contented. What in fact happens a lot of the time is that as one accumulates more possessions, keeping it all becomes more and more stressful.
So basically, if you arent happy and contented with the comparatively small amount of possessions you may have now, then having more isnt going to make you happier. To strive for true wealth and contentment in the future, it is the attitude of being happy with what you have that you develop now that will make the difference.
