What I Learned About Happiness and Success
Throughout my whole life, I was always thinking about what made me happy and what it meant to be successful. When I was younger, I would always be impressed by people who had big mansions and luxury cars and think that they were the definition of success. These people were definitely successful by their own merits, but my idea of success was equated to materialism. I used to think that money bought happiness. However, I realized that this was not entirely the case.
The 70,000 Dollar CEO
When I learned about Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments, take a pay cut from one million dollars a year to 70,000 dollars a year, I was intrigued to learn more about his story. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, many companies were laying off their employees and some were even rescinding job offers. However, Dan Price did not want this to happen to his employees, so he made a sacrifice to cut down his salary that way none of his employees would be laid off and each employee would make at least 70,000 dollars a year. In an interview, Price stated that he has never felt happier and that he saw true success in his decision to make this sacrifice. I was very inspired by his values and then realized that I shouldn’t be impressed by the things that people have, but by what their values are.
If “money buys happiness” was a universal truth, Dan Price would not have made the decision to cut down his salary by a large percentage. Instead, he realized that he would be happier to keep all of his employees rather than letting them go. This act of selflessness made him happy, made his employees happy and got his company to perform even better than how it was doing before. Here’s a tweet that I found that summed up the “money doesn’t buy happiness” saying.
What Happiness and Success Mean to Me
Counting Your Blessings
I realized that happiness is a state of mind and that it comes from within. I started noticing how my outlook on life changed when I would think about the things that I have already been blessed with. Being able to live under a roof, sleep on a bed, have easy access to food and water, work at my dream job and be surrounded by friends and family that care for my well-being are just some of the blessings that make me happy. By practicing gratitude, I know that I am able to live my best life while striving to improve myself every day.
Being Content
Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist society where we are told that we will be happier if we keep buying things we really don’t need. Ads do have their use especially when we find out that there is something that could be good for our health, but most of the time we see ads that tell us we should buy things that we really don’t need. For example, you find out that there is a sale at your favorite store. You decide that you want to buy things from that store because you think that a sale doesn’t come around like this every day. However, did you already think about buying those things when the sale would come, or did you buy those things just because there was a sale? Did those things that you bought provide you a lot of value?
Whenever I’m in a store, I ask myself whether the item I am looking at will provide me with a lot of value. If it will, then I end up buying it, otherwise I don’t buy it. I realized how content I am with the things that I have, and I feel happier knowing that the things I have provide me with a lot of value and I should make the most out of what I have.
Mental Health
In order to be successful, your state of mind has to be healthy. If it’s not, then nothing in the world can change it unless your mind is at peace. There are definitely external factors that influence mental health, such as paying off debts, not being happy with our jobs or living in a neighborhood where there are high crime rates. Mental health involves everyone, including the top 1% of the population that owns more wealth than the bottom half. When I learned about Robin Williams’ death, I used to think that he was loved by everyone who watched his movies and he was one of the highest paid actors. He was by far one of the most influential actors of our time, but no one knew that he wasn’t doing well mentally until his death. I started thinking about mental health and how it expands beyond our finances and the people we surround ourselves with. We always have to ask ourselves every morning whether we feel okay, and if not, try talking about it with someone, and if you don’t want to talk about it with someone, at least write it down and think about how you can tackle the issues that you are facing.
Practicing gratitude has really made me feel empowered it’s improved my mental health. I realized that it’s not the materialistic things that you should strive for, but striving to be mentally healthy. Being mentally healthy is a major sign of success in my book.
Physical Health
A lot of times we get busy with our work lives and with our families that we tend to not put some time every week to improve our physical health. That could be doing cardio or weight-lifting. By being physically healthy, you start to feel better about yourself after you hit the gym that you want to keep your routine going. You know that if you don’t think about your physical health, you’ll end up having issues as you get older. This is something that’s been scaring me and I have been making the effort to go to the gym at least 3 times a week, logging my progress on my phone. I’ve also noticed that many people who have been at the gym regularly for years have been happier with their lives and have felt more confident in themselves.
I have searched for the meaning of success and happiness for so many years, and I am glad that I found my meaning. I hope that you find yours as well and I hope that this read provides you benefit in your life! I will be going into more detail over some of the habits that I have been practicing in a future article, so be on the lookout for that! 😃
