Excluding honeymoon periods. What’s the longest time you’ve been truly happy and how did it feel? I’d consider true happiness as being comfortable with who you are, being happy waking up on a Monday morning knowing you have to go to work, knowing that not knowing everything in life is actually fine, and having a strong purpose in life.
It feels like society has basically undervalued happiness for a long time. It’s become more important to pretend that you’re someone or something than to actually be yourself, especially with social media nowadays with people showing how great their life is, with the latest and more expensive material objects of choice (or friend’s choice to fit in a group or environment). It’s also become more important to have a status in life in terms of job title and salary than to actually know that while they’re important, they aren’t everything in life.
Sure money bring happiness — even a kid knows this. But how long does this happiness last until you have to make another purchase to feeling it again? Extrinsic happiness is just that — you waiting for someone’s reaction and allowing them to decide how you feel. True happiness has to do more with intrinsic happiness: things money can’t buy — health, relationships, growth, life goals and purpose, meaningful work and career path, impact in people and the world…
Richard Chan 