"Humans tend to have a relatively set point of mood."
Gail Saltz, a New York City psychiatrist
Like lots of other people, I
spent yesterday spending half a billion dollars in my head. I rarely buy lottery tickets but with such a
high payout I had to ‘invest’ 5.00 towards winning.
I was all set to buy the farm
from Ma and donate it back to the township so she and my brother could retire. Pay off Ma’s Condo in Florida and set her up
with a bank account she could draw from, set up college funds for a few my
friends kids, set up a hefty trust fund for the Nephew so he could pick
whatever life he wanted and not worry about money, build my brother’s dream house
in Florida, and donate at least 30% of the original amount to charity. Once that was all done I could take the rest
and settle myself on a quiet farm in Ireland with a personal trainer, a chef,
and a maid. The cats and I would be
living a nice quiet life…….
Of course I didn’t win, but it
is fun to think about what you’d do with all that LOOT because after all, your
troubles would be over….. right?
On Monday I had came across
an article on MSNBC that discussed how lottery millionaires are no happier
after their payout and I’ve been thinking a lot about that. Yes, my current money issues would be solved
but oh how many MORE troubles would come up.
Troubles that would be much bigger and way more complicated than I think
I’d want to deal with.
The quote at the top was in
the article and it really got me thinking about….happiness. So many people talk about how they’ll be “happier
when I retire” or “Happier when I get a
job and move to that new location” or “Happier when I lose 20 lbs” or “Happier
if I had more money”…. But would you be happier… really?
I agree with Dr. Gail Salts,
that most people have a “relatively set point of mood” and once they finally
get whatever it is that they wanted, they are no happier than they were
before. They just find something ELSE to
be unhappy about.
The last 7 or 8 years have
shown me that happiness comes from inside, not outside. You can easily have everything you’ve ever
wanted and still not be happy. You can
blame your unhappiness on plenty of things.
“I just can’t catch a break” “Life screws me over” “The universe seems
to be against me” … no. It just means
you didn’t get things the way you wanted them and it’s YOU who are making
yourself unhappy about it. Everyone has
something they are blessed with like a wonderful family, an abundance of
friends who care about them, a job that pays the bills, their health, or
whatever.
If you want to be happy,
learn to be happy in your head, in your skin, and in your heart. You are the only thing that you can control, so learn to be happy with what you have and appreciate it.
Very well spoken! Ryan linked me to your blog - he thought I would appreciate your perspective.
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