Some thoughts on true happiness

English as a Second Language What do you want to talk about?
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So there was a time in my life when I was making a five-figure monthly income online, and it felt pretty good, although I was still unhappy because something was missing: since I was spending most of my day online, I was missing the face-to-face human interaction, and I was gradually becoming unhappy, although the money was still coming in regularly. Then I made some drastic changes, sold my online business and started a company that was almost completely offline. I enjoyed the daily interaction with my team, but I overdid it. We got too many people into the business too quickly, and after about 18 months I had to close the business and go back to being a language trainer, which was always what I enjoyed the most. Life was pretty good again, I had lots of classes and traveled all over the country working in different places with all kinds of people. Then one day, after another intense and productive coaching session, I was riding home on my motorcycle enjoying the sunny weather, and I thought to myself, "If my website would start bringing in at least $5,000 to $6,000 a month again, I’d probably be really happy again. As I rode with that thought for a while, a terrible thought suddenly struck me, and I had to stop to think about it. I thought, “What if this 5 to 6,000 doesn’t make me happier than I am now”? After thinking about this thought for quite a while, I finally realized that I already have everything I need to be as happy as I will ever be. I don’t need to earn several thousand dollars online when I’m better off than so many people in the world who enjoy life even though they are poor by our modern capitalist definition.

True happiness can only come from making other people happy by helping them to make the best use of their mental and emotional potential. No monthly dollar amount can surpass this kind of happiness.

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I think there is a correlation between money and happiness, but it’s a weak one.

I think the two biggest factors are the culture and parents. Since parents are also influenced by their culture, it builds on itself. Happy parents strongly tend to have happy children. Unhappy or dull parents strongly tend to have unhappy or dull children.

Most of my parents generation are dead. The rest are very old. When someone ages you can really see the happiness in some of their faces. Even at an old age some still seem vibrant even though their faces are wrinkled. They just sparkle. You can see this at any age, but in old age it’s the accumulated dull or happy face of a lifetime. When you see an old person sparkle, you know they did something right in their life.

The ones who are truly happy in their old age are the type of people who don’t let things get to them. They accept that bad things will happen in life, so when it happens they don’t let it ruin their life.

Money is nice to provide the basic needs in life. Anything beyond that is extra. A person’s happiness should not depend on having large amounts of money. If it does they are doing something wrong. They are setting the bar too high, which basically means they don’t accept the life they already have. That’s not the route to happiness.

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That’s definitely true. But, Torsten, it all depends on how one looks at life.
Attitude to life differs from person to person.
Realization of the ultimate truth that life is only transient may change our concept of life!.

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