Is the answer so difficult?
Now, there's a lot of ways to look at this though...
Is the state of not being unhappy equal to being happy?
Is contentment considered happy?
For example, if I can't get a good nights sleep, I'll be kinda irritated the next day and tired.
I'd definitely prefer a good sleep as compared to not good sleep.
But that's one day...
If I don't have good sleep for 1 month... would I be just irritated or plain unhappy?
If I'm hungry today, I'm just on a diet.
If I'm on diet for 1 month, I'd feel life isn't really worth living. And that's a diet by choice.
If I'm hungry cos I cannot afford food... then I'm quite sure I won't be happy.
So how can we define happiness?
Cos after a while, we take for granted things that make us happy.
If we remove some of these things, I'm sure most of us would not be happy.
If we look at life/happiness from this point of view...
ie, looking at the things that if we remove we will be significantly unhappy.
Then there's a lot of things in our day to day life that makes us happy, cos without it, we would be unhappy.
Such as... (1) regular sleep. (2) Knowing where our next meal is going to come from.
Good enough (3) transportation... can you imagine if you need to walk to work? Or to anywhere for that matter?
(4) A home to sleep in, (5) a mattress to sleep on.
(6) At least a fan at home.
If any of these were removed from you, you definitely would be UNHAPPY.
And we take so many of these things for granted, and yet they fill up so much of our lives.
I think 70%-80% of our happiness comes from these simple things.
If even 1 of these was removed from our lives. How would we feel?
And yet, most of the time, we spend so much energy focusing on the extra 20%-30% trying to make ourselves happier. Higher pay, bigger house, bigger car.
Think about it, if you remove a TV from your home, vs if you remove a fan. I think the fan is more important and would make you unhappier.
Don't say you can use your phone for entertainment, or don't say you have air-con, that defeats the spirit of this example.
So do you really need a bigger TV?
Recently my TV had some issues. Luckily it was still on warranty so I managed to get it repaired for free.
And I was thinking... what IF, it wasn't on warranty? Would I pay money to get it repaired or buy a new one? I was actually thinking that we could just live without a TV. We don't use it much anyway. More often than not, we use our laptop for entertainment. So having no TV at home would free up some additional space. It would be really cool without a TV at home. I think I'd probably be one of the few people who voluntarily live without a TV.
Simply cos... it really doesn't give me much happiness. There's probably some happiness, but not enough to justify me spending money on it the next time.
So I think this is a very interesting exercise.
Think about the stuff that's in your house, that you aren't using much. If you didn't touch it for 3 months, you probably don't need it, or it doesn't give you enough happiness.
Think about the stuff that's stressing you up. Is it really important enough to keep you awake at night?
The cup isn't half full... IT'S ALREADY ALMOST FULL!!!
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Now, there's a lot of ways to look at this though...
Is the state of not being unhappy equal to being happy?
Is contentment considered happy?
For example, if I can't get a good nights sleep, I'll be kinda irritated the next day and tired.
I'd definitely prefer a good sleep as compared to not good sleep.
But that's one day...
If I don't have good sleep for 1 month... would I be just irritated or plain unhappy?
If I'm hungry today, I'm just on a diet.
If I'm on diet for 1 month, I'd feel life isn't really worth living. And that's a diet by choice.
If I'm hungry cos I cannot afford food... then I'm quite sure I won't be happy.
So how can we define happiness?
Cos after a while, we take for granted things that make us happy.
If we remove some of these things, I'm sure most of us would not be happy.
If we look at life/happiness from this point of view...
ie, looking at the things that if we remove we will be significantly unhappy.
Then there's a lot of things in our day to day life that makes us happy, cos without it, we would be unhappy.
Such as... (1) regular sleep. (2) Knowing where our next meal is going to come from.
Good enough (3) transportation... can you imagine if you need to walk to work? Or to anywhere for that matter?
(4) A home to sleep in, (5) a mattress to sleep on.
(6) At least a fan at home.
If any of these were removed from you, you definitely would be UNHAPPY.
And we take so many of these things for granted, and yet they fill up so much of our lives.
I think 70%-80% of our happiness comes from these simple things.
If even 1 of these was removed from our lives. How would we feel?
And yet, most of the time, we spend so much energy focusing on the extra 20%-30% trying to make ourselves happier. Higher pay, bigger house, bigger car.
Think about it, if you remove a TV from your home, vs if you remove a fan. I think the fan is more important and would make you unhappier.
Don't say you can use your phone for entertainment, or don't say you have air-con, that defeats the spirit of this example.
So do you really need a bigger TV?
Recently my TV had some issues. Luckily it was still on warranty so I managed to get it repaired for free.
And I was thinking... what IF, it wasn't on warranty? Would I pay money to get it repaired or buy a new one? I was actually thinking that we could just live without a TV. We don't use it much anyway. More often than not, we use our laptop for entertainment. So having no TV at home would free up some additional space. It would be really cool without a TV at home. I think I'd probably be one of the few people who voluntarily live without a TV.
Simply cos... it really doesn't give me much happiness. There's probably some happiness, but not enough to justify me spending money on it the next time.
So I think this is a very interesting exercise.
Think about the stuff that's in your house, that you aren't using much. If you didn't touch it for 3 months, you probably don't need it, or it doesn't give you enough happiness.
Think about the stuff that's stressing you up. Is it really important enough to keep you awake at night?
The cup isn't half full... IT'S ALREADY ALMOST FULL!!!
<<PREVIOUS POST // NEXT POST>>
Did you like this post? If so, could you "blanjah" me 1/4 cup of my morning coffee pls.
You may also consider subscribing to receive the articles in your email, link in the column on the right.
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