Devaluing Happiness

As the title says, happiness is ranked at a lower level than other priorities in life. You might be wondering  why will someone ever do that. But in reality, most of us do this in some decision or the other in our daily life. But it does not look obvious. Hence we don’t realize that. Even if we realize, we rationalize it telling ourselves that we are doing it for happiness when we are actually sacrificing our happiness for something else.

On a fine evening, I took my best friend to one of my favorite restaurants for buffet. Unfortunately, the food was awful that day. Since I had to pay the bill irrespective of how the food was, I ended up eating only the few items which I liked over and again. I was rationalizing that I have to eat worth the amount I am spending. While my friend, as he did not like the food, he just stopped eating after he had finished tasting the food. I was clearly valuing money in place of happiness. That was a lesson which I had to learn from him. But I did not realize about that until I did this course.

I corrected this mistake next time when I went for shopping. There was a sale going on in the shop I went to. I went with the intention of buying the ones which were on sale. But the clothes which were not on sale were more trendy. I just went on with buying the clothes from new arrivals without thinking about money. I feel proud of myself that I actually implemented the lesson learnt last time.

Do you also want to stop devaluing happiness? The following are the three common reasons why people devalue happiness:

You can’t reach the destination if you don’t know where you have to go.  Same is the case with happiness. So what does happiness mean to you? A candle light dinner with your spouse? A promotion at your workplace? Getting some alone time? Happiness varies from person to person. Knowing what makes you happy is important to start being happy. This article guides you to know what makes you happy.

Many people assume that happiness leads to laziness or selfishness. But research proves the opposite. Happy people are the most productive at work and are altruistic.

To achieve happiness, we need a medium. But in the longer run, we might lose track of the bigger picture and assume that achieving the medium is the way to achieve happiness. For example, we earn money so that we can lead a happy life. But in the longer we forget about happiness and only think about money.

Now that you know the common mistakes which people make and devalue happiness. Start protecting yourself from not falling into this trap. Evaluate yourself daily.

Stay Happy!