I suspect that that response is truer than most people, me included, would like to admit. Even though we know at a basic level, that it's not the money we want, but the things that the money would bring, it's those things that would bring happiness. The freedom to do what we think we wish we want to do.
But have we really reflected on those things? Those things that we'd like to do that sit in our imagination most of the time. Those things that money is supposed to bring, or at some point in life, does the pursuit of money itself become so overwhelming that it becomes the goal. A goal which doesn't make sense when you think of happiness.
There's a principle in psychology known as the Hedonic Treadmill. It's about the tendency for humans to quickly return to a relative stable level of happiness. This means that even in that euphoric state of feeling good, you quickly adapt to feeling normal about that situation. For example, getting a raise. There's a feeling of the world of possibilities opening up, that this is an endorsement of your work, a sign of the respect that you're getting and ultimately a great step forward in now getting to the point where you become truly happy. But you quickly settle into that new salary and quicker than you can imagine, you begin to look forward to the next step and the pursuit begins again. Oscar award winners will speak of the moment that their name is called and they walk up to the podium to accept their golden statue. The feeling of walking up there, basking in the applause, speaking of the challenges of having made that movie and the acting and the role, and then walking back out of the limelight. From time to time returning to that place by meditating on the event past, looking at the statue in their award closet, but already focussed on the next event.
If happiness cannot be found in the present moment of doing the activity, then you can never be truly happy.
But not to negate the effect of money, clearly in this life, money is the enabler of a lot of things. But as in the documentary, the essential point is "how much." I believe that many of us, especially those of us who live in this western world of middle to high incomes, already have the things to make us happy right in front of us. It's really identifying with them. There's a difference if you spend a lot of your time worrying about where you're going to get your next meal, or where to go for shelter. But the difference between that person who makes $100,000 a year and $200,000 isn't that big. It's even less between $500,000 and $1,000,000. And clearly the happiness meter isn't affected by money when you're thinking about the difference between a salary of $10,000,000 and $100,000,000 (or even a billion).
If you cannot be happy earning $1,000,000, I doubt that money's the problem.
Another interesting titbit from this movie came from the opinion of a couple of psychologists and neuroscientists. Apparently, 50% of your ability to be happy comes from your genes. 50% of the wiring of your ability to be happy is handed down from your parents. That's a huge amount, but don't despair if your parents aren't the champions of happiness and well-being, you still have 50% to work with. Of that remaining 50%, 10% is attributed to the things that we're told are important. Having a good job, working hard, achieving professional success and even making money. The last 40% however, depends on your active pursuit of it. By actively engaging in, not pursuing, but doing the things that generate happiness. Meditation is one. The act of sitting still, pondering your own happiness and reflecting in how you can achieve it and not just letting things happen. Doing something each day to help someone else. Saying something nice to at least a couple of people each day. Going out of your way to make someone else happy.
The key idea here is to "do." It's amazing how so many times, happiness is tied to physical activity. Walking or running. Farming. Painting. Writing. Acting. Exercising. Climbing. Cooking. Cleaning. At times, I think that we're loosing touch with that physical world as we become more technologically advanced. Even as I type this, I wrote the salient parts in a book, by hand, with a fountain pen that I had to fill with ink. I'm not transcribing this word-for-word, but I'm paraphrasing what I paraphrased and thinking about what it meant. It's true, spending time thinking about how happy you'd like to be is important, like taking showers or eating. Something you need for good health. Activities you do with pleasure and are happy to engage in.
And so the challenge to you is to make sure you find some time to stop whatever you're doing and spend time thinking about your happiness. Irrespective of how much money you're making, you need to ask yourself if you were engaged in an activity today that made you happy. Today. When I wake up in the morning to run, I'm not the happiest person. When I take that first step outside, it sometimes hurts and I'm sore and tired. But I know, after a few minutes I begin to think differently. Think of how fortunate I am that I can do this.
And then I'm happy.
