Why not invest in your personal happiness?
What is happiness? What brings you feelings of happiness? Can you enhance your personal happiness through learning and endeavor? Perhaps these inquiries have crossed your mind throughout your life, yet you might not have arrived at any conclusive responses. Nevertheless, you likely desire to believe that comprehending and effectively navigating happiness is within your grasp, correct?
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony
Mahatma Gandhi
Treat your happiness like a well-balanced investment portfolio
A structure for maintaining happiness is absent, yet according to Arthur Brooks, a Harvard educator who leads a course focused on crafting a more joyous life, he believes that any such strategy should initiate by regarding your personal happiness as a well-proportioned investment portfolio.
To put it simply, individuals should strive to allocate resources to four equally significant domains in order to attain a greater sense of fulfillment in life, as Brooks explains in one of the videos from the happiness course.
All these areas are indispensable, thereby allowing our happiness to flourish in an evenhanded manner, he emphasizes. Every facet of this portfolio holds pivotal importance in the experience of happiness. Just like any investment portfolio, it requires balance.
Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions
Dalai Lama
Invest in the following 4 areas for more personal happiness
Beliefs and life philosophy. Discover what aids you in comprehending the world, as suggested by Brooks. This could encompass a religion, spiritual practice, or any other element that aids in finding significance in life.
Family bonds. Fortify your connections with your family. These are relationships that you generally don’t choose, yet they are dependable, as emphasized by Brooks.
Community and companionship. Foster profound friendships, as they tend to be your closest associations. Friendships are relationships of choice, and they possess the potential to influence your level of happiness.
A meaningful vocation. Give precedence to work that imparts a sense of fulfillment. This doesn’t necessarily imply a high-paying job, as you needn’t amass considerable wealth to be successful and contribute to others, according to Brooks.
In addition to the portfolio, there exist other factors that wield a greater impact on your personal happiness, Brooks further underscores.
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated
Confucius
Happiness is mostly beyond your immediate control
A significant portion of your happiness eludes direct control, according to his assertion. Roughly 50% of your happiness has genetic roots, and another substantial segment hinges on your immediate circumstances.
Despite the happiness investment portfolio accounting for merely around 25% of your personal happiness, Brooks underscores its value. Devoting equal effort to each facet of the portfolio can enhance your emotional well-being, he highlights.
Independently, none of these elements can singularly constitute happiness, as Brooks stresses throughout the course. They complement and coexist harmoniously with each other.
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time
Marthe Troly-Curtin
Why not invest in your personal happiness conclusion
According to Dada Vaswani, happiness, true happiness, is an inner quality. It is a state of mind. If your mind is at peace, you are happy. If your mind is at peace, but you have nothing else, you can be happy. If you have everything the world can give – pleasure, possessions, power – but lack peace of mind, you can never be happy.
For those seeking to assume command over their lives, be it in their personal or professional spheres, personal happiness emerges as a pivotal skill. By potentially directing one’s endeavors into the four essential realms discussed earlier, with aiming to forge a life with a greater purpose, abundant in encountering delight and satisfaction, you could uncover an elevated experience of authentic happiness, all the while maintaining a harmonious equilibrium.
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
