So many people seem to judge success based on how much money one makes. This is a terrible misconception though, as success is not defined by monetary gain, but by happiness. This inspires an entirely different way of thinking about our lives; in particular our jobs. What if we didn’t strive to make money, but instead to make happiness?
When I first iterated over this article, I went back and forth on whether or not to include bullet points refining the concept. I found it difficult to articulate, because I was quick to inject my own inspirations for contentment. Everyone has a different definition of “happiness,” but there are a various ways you can look at your job in which are most encouraging. I believe I’ll continue to post on this concept, but here are a few things I find important and that could lend themselves to others as well.
1) Layout a base set of criteria that makes you happy. Like profiling an application for performance gain, you can’t know you’ve reached your goal unless you’ve set one. But how does one determine what happiness means? It’s actually fairly easy. Slow down, take a deep breath, and think about what makes you smile (smiling on the inside counts as well). What makes your entire body reverberate with that indescribable feeling?
2) Make just enough money to be able to provide these things for yourself.
3) If you make more money than you need to be happy, use it to inspire happiness in others.
4) Ensure that your means of making money contributes to your overall happiness. Sacrificing your well-being for delayed reward is a broken model. Some would argue this point, saying that there are necessary evils; Someone has to do the dirty work. But one can be content in their work, glamorous or not, based on their perception of the work itself and its benefit to the greater good.
5) Love unconditionally.
6) Add pictures of cats to whatever projects you work on. This guarantees, without the glimmer of a doubt, the happiness of not only yourself but your users as well.
Ok ok, the last one was a joke, but seriously … who doesn’t like cat pictures.
I know several people who hate cats – one of them literally thinks they are the spawn of the devil. Lots of people I know consider them to be conceited, selfish and evil in general. Seems to be a spreading meme as I don’t remember it being as popular a few years back as it is now.
Puppies though, well, I’ve never met anybody who doesn’t like puppies. :-)
You’re overlooking the boredom factor. What makes us happy now becomes routine soon and we’re off chasing after the next goal. I like that actually. Life’d be boring otherwise.
Money can grow in value. I’d like to see happiness do that. Also, if you make too much happiness, you can black out. Not true with money.
Goals are fine, but what really kicks life up a notch is a purpose. Then you know what kind of goals you want to set. If your purpose is to care for homeless people, then that directs you to set goals like “set up a shelter for displaced youth” or “create a treatment program for substance-addicted homeless”. You can complete goals, and then what do you do? But a purpose generates new, worthwhile goals forever.
nise description abt dis …........ happiness is nt completed by money
Happiness and money do not have to be mutually exclusive concepts. I know some very happy, very wealthy people, as well as some very unhappy poor ones.
Anyway, nice sentiments. I think you may find a lot to appreciate in the philosophy of Buddhism.
Paul
http://happinesspolicy.com/
Wow thanks! I’m a regular reader and enjoy your work. Keep it up!
Thank you all for your incredible comments. I will try to reply more as I move to a stable format for my day to day ramblings, Twitterings, Photos, etc.
Paul: Fair enough, but do dog’s go well with humorous taglines? An experiment perhaps?
anony mouse: What begets happiness now does not necessarily wear off. True, “It’s hard to make the good things last” (Flaming Lips Dude). Chasing after the next goal is a part of making happiness as well, as you speak to.
Steve: Happiness absolutely grows in value with respect to the person. In fact, I’d say it grows more quickly in value than money, and depreciates less (although sometimes more easily).
Josh: Absolutely.
Paul: There are very happy people who’ve attained wealth, to be sure. But what do you do with that wealth is what I question. Thanks for the comment.
L: Fantastic link, thanks! I’m contacting the author now.
John: Thanks!
I should say I am pleasantly surprised to see such a topic being discussed in such technical groups.
Happiness is when your beliefs, your actions and your words are in alignment. – Gandhi
I can’t stress the importance of finding one’s purpose in life, not just goals.
Infact, goals that are not aligned with your priorities in life suck the energy out of you.
Thanks for bringing this topic to the awareness of the programmer community.
Hari,
Thank you for the kind words. I agree, and I hope to see more such discussion in an arena where monetary gain is so often the big picture.
I find it hard to make money without being miserable. It’s a question of necessity of course for me since my happiness doesn’t pay the rent.
I am in absolute bliss when I don’t work for money or in fact even if I work for money but unprofitable (unprofitable because I choose to do it my way).
So please hire me to work for happiness (in which I am quite able).
Everything having been said here is very true, but some people just can’t cut it financially. While happinees is not related to having more material things it is still important to some to be able to provide the things their family would like. Some may need to make a little cash and need some ideas to doing that. Thats why I started a basic blog on how to make money on the internet.
First, another vote for puppies. The best thing anyone can say about a cat is that it acts like a dog. Nuff said.
As for happiness, elusive yes, but attainable nonetheless. For me, it was dropping out of tech (Oracle db stuff, despite all the fun I had forcing developers to use bind variables against their very nature). I now make less money, work more hours, but love every minute of it- I started a photography company and work with my wife. There’s still a lot of tech on the backend and much more reward on the front end.
Once you have the basics covered, more money does not translate into more happiness, that’s up to you.
The problem with the happiness hypothesis in the modern world (and reflected in your post) is that its a term held hostage by the more, more, more, you, you, you of marketing, mass media, and corporations. We are a self referential society and I believe, as man is a social animal, happiness is something defined within a greater community / family / social interaction.
Happiness is an interesting gauge, but what about virtue as described in my blog post below? (I am not saying they are mutually exclusive):
http://www.hirechriscranley.com/2008/03/28/virtuemap/