Happiness

Our House 

Happiness ? What is it. Simply stated, it is a  transient emotion of each an every person.

The world has been gaga about trying to achieve 'happiness' amongst all the countries in the last 40 to 50 years that  there are numerous country Happiness Indexes, Charts, Quick Fixes, it makes you wonder.

Is Happiness measurable ? Happiness varies from person to person. 

Some people find happiness in eating good food.

Some others in solitude, or in vacationing, or going to karaoke to sing.

Others like the current generation, like to play VR team games  

In Maslow's heirarchy of needs, human basic needs are the of access food, clothing, shelter and safety. After these 4 are satisfied, the needs become more esoteric and the so called 'rights', freedoms and self determination of the individual becomes more pressing.   

Does being rich make you happy ? 

Not necessarily so.

With so much wealth there comes infighting within your family and loved ones, it is not a given but there is so much envy amongst the cohort when they see that you have made it, that sometimes very rich people withdraw from society and hence have few friends which they truly call friends.

If you are the top student in your class or year will this make you happy ?

Perhaps, but you then have the weight or expectation that you have to perform and be cleverer than the rest from today. That will weigh you down. 

If you are handsome and have many friends, are you truly happy ?

See the numerous KPop and Hollywood stars, musicians  and actors who committed suicide at the peak of their careers. They were lonely and dreadfully unhappy. 

Goo Hara, Robin Williams, Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain are but just 4 who come to my mind.

Being Happy - it is a state of mind for each individual.

1. Staying Relevant and Doing Good.

To be happy, one needs to be doing something meaningful. He may be earning a salary and on the side, he is volunteering at the soup kitchen or in the Buddhist lodge preparing food for the elderly sick.

On the other hand, someone may be raising a family and / or tending to an elder in the family who is slowly getting Alzeimer's (for example). These may make people happy  knowing they are relevant and doing good. 

I have been extremely fortunate to own land in Singapore, thanks to my family's inheritance of  a small house in the central part of Singapore. We spent quite a small fortune tearing down the old house to completely rebuild a new one so the picture above is the 'new' house.

The property is fully paid. This means that we have no mortgage over our heads at this juncture where I turn 60 in a week's time. This I am very happy about. You must have read that mortgage rates have been skyrocketing this past year to over 4% and homeowners who have bought properties in land scare Singapore must be quite concerned with their mortgages now practically double of what it used to be just 5 years ago.

I have managed a total of 4 companies and one is doing reasonably well, so I am aiming to sell this profitable business to investors in the coming months and years. It is not a good thing to hold on to material goods, buildings and assets. It is better to exit while I still am near the peak of health and do things which enrich my inner being. 

I titled this post happiness, because in Singapore, as in many capital cities in the developed world, we need to find our Ikigai or our meaning for living. Every person's Ikigai is truly personal to himself and mine is only known to myself. I started setting life goals over 20 years ago and to date, I have attained some and have failed miserably in others.

Set personal life goals, attain them within reasonable amount of time. I do set goals every year since the year 2000.

2. Sometimes, one has to make sacrifices but in the end, he or she will be Happy

Sacrifices - to achieve your goals be prepared to Sacrifice some of your long held luxuries.

There will be sacrifices for sure, like becoming a married person, and a father, then as a caregiver to my aged parents. But at every few years, stop, take a look at your life goals, if you have achieved them, you will be happy. If not, keep plugging on. 

3. If your set goals are unrealistic - be strong and change them

If they are unrealistic to achieve, change them to more realistic ones. Don't compare yourself with the Joneses or the best of the best. Happiness is at best a transient state of mind. If you find someone who is always happy and laughing at nothing, you would think he had some mental illness wouldn't you ?? 

I am happy in my own skin, come what may. The outlook for the world economy is bleak, but somehow I think that I will overcome whatever life throws at me, curve ball or straight ball included.

I am determined to attain a major personal goal in the next year or two (2023 and / or 2024).