Happiness: The Discussion

When a group of MBAs were asked whether they’d rather make $100,000 when everyone around them made $120,000, or make $90,000 when everyone around them made $70,000, a majority opted for the lesser salary if everyone at the company knew about the discrepancy, Schwarz said.

But if the salary discrepancies were kept confidential, about half said they’d opt for the $100,000 job.

Source: CNN Money

And this is perhaps where we run into problems, seeing all of these fabulous lives on TV, with people who are supposed to earn peanuts (Umm.. Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City?) but running around on high octane lifestyles.

We compare ourselves to what we think is reality, but is in fact, manufactured TV reality.

Happiness is love

And by love, they mean strong family bonds, a sense of a support system, spending time with each other (getting hugs, smiles, kisses), and having a great partner in life also helped.

People who are in love are happy people.

I find that when you aren’t with or around people you love, who care and support you, you feel unhappy.

And you project that dissatisfaction onto others.

Every time I see someone really grumpy at work, I just wonder if they’re happy at home.

When they are being forced to work long hours, and give up time with their family, I find that people get grumpier.

It may be because they need to earn more money to pay down their debt from their high-octane lifestyle, or just don’t want to be at home and use work as a substitute.

Poorer People are Happier

If anyone has ever traveled or known people who have traveled to very poor countries — they’re generally happy.

They don’t stress out about anything except the basics: Food, Clothing, Shelter and Warmth.

Other than that, the rest doesn’t even exist in their word — there’s no TV set or advertising Mad Men to tell them otherwise.

They have no manufactured dissatisfaction, or others in their village sporting iPods to make them feeling jealous at not having what others have.

Envy is what I believe to be the core of retail therapy.

We are so envious of what others have, that we try to level the playing field in our minds, by buying our way up to their “status”.

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