5 Mistaken Beliefs About Happiness
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Written by Jimmie Burroughs – Email this article to a friend
So what does it take to make us happy? According to the experts, almost everything we think that would make us happy is dead wrong. Here are 5 mistaken beliefs about happiness, five things that we may think will make us happy which fail the test:
- Happiness is based on external conditions outside the mind.
- Happiness comes from having a good job, boss, coworkers, and salary.
- Being famous creates happiness.
- Being rich makes you happy.
- Happiness comes from getting what you want.
The time in my life that I believed the material things would make me happy has long since gone. I have had enough to know they will not. They do create a little happiness at first, but it quickly goes away as the newness wears off, leaving you right where you started. Throughout my life, I have gotten most of what I wanted, but it has made little difference as far as happiness.
Happiness is based on external conditions outside the mind.
Is pleasure, where a person lives the house they live in, the car they drive or other things outside the mind what brings happiness?
I am writing to you today not only from research but also from personal experience of which I have had plenty. For example, when I was only twenty-two I got the car I had been dreaming of since high school.
It was my first new car, a beautiful red convertible with a white cloth top. I was in New York and had a good paying job, saved the cash and paid for it with hundred dollar bills.
I also bought a new wardrobe of clothes, took a sabbatical from work, went back to my hometown and for six months slept until I was ready to get up, went where I wanted, which was a crisscross of the United States from north to south and from east to west, 35,000 miles in one year.
I had a date with a new girl every night if I wanted it. I partied and went to nightclubs regularly throughout the week. I do not suppose I was too bad looking because I was voted the most handsome guy of my senior class. Therefore, I had just about all I ever thought would make me happy. Instead, I look back on those days as the most miserable of my life. It was only because of a beautiful 19-year-old decent, young woman who came into my life that saved me from self-destructing.
Happiness is in the mind and has little to do with external things!
Happiness comes from having a good job, boss, co-workers, and a decent salary.
There are so many who have trouble with their job and actually hate it. In the first place, many do not try to contribute 100%, and do not earn merit raises, and neither do they try to have a good relationship with the boss and co-workers. Even if all things at work did work out, you still cannot depend a job to make you happy.
Being famous creates happiness.
Fifty one percent of high school kids said in a recent survey that their ultimate goal was to become famous. Is happiness found in a celebrity status? Not really, because famous people are four times more likely to commit suicide than average people are. Even if it isn’t suicide, we all have seen famous entertainers self-destruct right before our eyes; most recently, the beloved Whitney Houston, and right prior to her, Michael Jackson and a whole string of others too numerous to mention. If anything, it seems much harder for movie stars and entertainers ever to achieve happiness than anyone else.
The public struggles of celebrities and performers are reported on TV and in the printed media almost daily. For instance, the number of movie stars who are addicted to cocaine and treated in rehab centers far outweighs the average per capita according to numerical statistics. These statistics makes movie star happiness seem to be almost impossible.
Famous people have to give up their freedom to go and come as they please; employ bodyguards to protect them, and endure an almost unending stream of false allegations and undesirable publicity. Even their families are not safe to go out alone.
Being rich makes you happy.
How much of happiness depends on material prosperity anyway? The answers will surprise you. Wealthy people are no happier than anyone else, according to survey statistics!
International studies conducted on happiness have produced surprising results. Where would you suppose the happiest people in the world live? Would you say The United States, Canada, Australia or somewhere in Europe? If so, you are very wrong! Sixty five nations were studied in 2003, and the results published in the British magazine, New Scientist. The survey discovered that the happiest countries in the world with the most satisfied and optimistic people are Nigeria, Mexico and Puerto Rico, with Nigeria leading the list as being the happiest country in the world. These are also among some of the poorest countries in the world.
Probably the richest man in history was King Solomon of the Old Testament. He writes of his pursuit to find happiness in the book of Ecclesiastes and determines that all is vanity. He lived in a mansion and had 900 of the most beautiful women of the kingdom. He planted beautiful gardens. He had it all.
So what does make us happy?
Here it is – learning to be content with what we have.
Conclusion
I am not a religious Zealot as if some misinformed would like to label me. I have no desire to try to cram my beliefs down anyone’s throat. I am just an ordinary human being who has seen a lot and experienced a lot, who has discovered that the most contentment I have ever known has come from my relationship with God. You can believe it, or not believe it. You can accept it or reject it; it will have no affect on me whatsoever. However, I would be greatly pleased if you did accept it and found the same contentment I have.
About the author: Jimmie Burroughs is a motivational speaker and author who has been involved in teaching Christian Personal Development for more than 30 years. There are hundreds of articles to help you on this website (Website Contents) in your personal growth.
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