Happiness
There is an interesting article in the Economist on 'Happiness and How to measure it'. The article talks about whether capitalism can make a society happier like it can make it richer. It talks about the link between happiness and material wealth.
In my opinion, happiness is about achieving the milestones that you set for yourself. The only challenge of course is that the milestones keep changing. Also, these milestones are very unique to every individual. Some people are overjoyed when they get a good raise in their salary that now is over $40,000 annualy, while there are others who can't sleep well coz they make only $4 million. And two people with the same material and social status would probably not be equally happy as well.
It seems though that happiness is hard to achieve. There was this interesting study I came across, it was on the happiness index of people with different salary bands. The index rises linearly as the salary goes up, but after a certain point, the index starts dipping with the rise in the salary. Some explanations were things like lack of time for self, after a point the individual moves from one social class to the next, where he/she is a misfit or low in that class.
I guess its a problem with the milestones that we set as benchmarks of happiness. "When I will start working, I won't have any problems.", "When I have that car, then that will be cool", "When I make that much money, I will be able to satisfy my needs". Our milestones to make us happy "tomorrow" are based on what we think is important to us "today". Today if I make $100 I tell myself that when I make $150 I will be able to live better and in more luxury. By the time I make that $150, I surely get things that I couldnt have afforded earlier, but that's not what excites me anymore. That doesnt make me happy anymore. Now, I want that other thing which costs $250. And so I set out again, in search to make myself happy "tomorrow".
The truth is our material milestones are static, while we are constantly changing. We try to make our milestones also dynamic, but they are always so chosen that we dont get to enjoy them today but tomorrow. And we get ourselves into this infinite loop of searching for happiness.
But not all milestones are linked to money or material objects. Milestones are linked to achievements that could be finishing some project (like a painting for an artist), or achieving or winning those battles that were always a mental challenge and seemed Herculean (completing a marathon for an amateur runner or winning a match against a top seed player). Probably the happiness that one gets by achieving such milestones is far greater than the material milestones. The non-material milestones represent the true spirit of the individual, the real goals, the true passions and meaning of his life. Making the finest piece of art gives the artist the ultimate satisfaction and happiness, not the value at which it is bought.
So what's the secret to staying happy. Saints and Sages have argued detachment from material objects as a fool proof way of staying happy. When you don't care of the material objects in life, you don't have milestones that are based on those. But detaching oneself from the material things in life is rather hard. So is it about not having milestones at all? No, even saints have milestones, but they are linked to spiritual progress.
Yes, we need to have milestones in order to keep living. We need to have something to work towards, something to look forward to, something to achieve in order to give meaning to our lives. It is the choice of your milestone that will determine how happy you will be. If your milestone is linked to what you are passionate about, then the chances that you will be happy are a lot higher than if your milestone is simply linked to having $x or the BMW or the farm house.
Now the problem is, If only I knew what I was passionate about.
In my opinion, happiness is about achieving the milestones that you set for yourself. The only challenge of course is that the milestones keep changing. Also, these milestones are very unique to every individual. Some people are overjoyed when they get a good raise in their salary that now is over $40,000 annualy, while there are others who can't sleep well coz they make only $4 million. And two people with the same material and social status would probably not be equally happy as well.
It seems though that happiness is hard to achieve. There was this interesting study I came across, it was on the happiness index of people with different salary bands. The index rises linearly as the salary goes up, but after a certain point, the index starts dipping with the rise in the salary. Some explanations were things like lack of time for self, after a point the individual moves from one social class to the next, where he/she is a misfit or low in that class.
I guess its a problem with the milestones that we set as benchmarks of happiness. "When I will start working, I won't have any problems.", "When I have that car, then that will be cool", "When I make that much money, I will be able to satisfy my needs". Our milestones to make us happy "tomorrow" are based on what we think is important to us "today". Today if I make $100 I tell myself that when I make $150 I will be able to live better and in more luxury. By the time I make that $150, I surely get things that I couldnt have afforded earlier, but that's not what excites me anymore. That doesnt make me happy anymore. Now, I want that other thing which costs $250. And so I set out again, in search to make myself happy "tomorrow".
The truth is our material milestones are static, while we are constantly changing. We try to make our milestones also dynamic, but they are always so chosen that we dont get to enjoy them today but tomorrow. And we get ourselves into this infinite loop of searching for happiness.
But not all milestones are linked to money or material objects. Milestones are linked to achievements that could be finishing some project (like a painting for an artist), or achieving or winning those battles that were always a mental challenge and seemed Herculean (completing a marathon for an amateur runner or winning a match against a top seed player). Probably the happiness that one gets by achieving such milestones is far greater than the material milestones. The non-material milestones represent the true spirit of the individual, the real goals, the true passions and meaning of his life. Making the finest piece of art gives the artist the ultimate satisfaction and happiness, not the value at which it is bought.
So what's the secret to staying happy. Saints and Sages have argued detachment from material objects as a fool proof way of staying happy. When you don't care of the material objects in life, you don't have milestones that are based on those. But detaching oneself from the material things in life is rather hard. So is it about not having milestones at all? No, even saints have milestones, but they are linked to spiritual progress.
Yes, we need to have milestones in order to keep living. We need to have something to work towards, something to look forward to, something to achieve in order to give meaning to our lives. It is the choice of your milestone that will determine how happy you will be. If your milestone is linked to what you are passionate about, then the chances that you will be happy are a lot higher than if your milestone is simply linked to having $x or the BMW or the farm house.
Now the problem is, If only I knew what I was passionate about.
posted by Shivanu @ 8:56 AM
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