Image via Wikipedia

Any regular reader of personal finance advice has heard about a million times that one of the keys to reducing and avoiding debt and living within one’s means it to end the pattern of trying to keep up with neighbors. Do not buy fancy cars, engage with mortgages for big houses, or take on new credit card purchases in order to make your outward appearance more positive in the eyes of others. This is sound advice and I will likely be writing about it in the future. What this post is about, however, is the bigger lesson here: happiness is relative.

I say happiness is relative because I know many people with very little who are very happy, and many people with a lot of stuff that are not happy at all. They may look happy, smiling as they drive their new cars to a high-paying job in a booming industry, but they cannot honestly tell you they love themselves, their lives, the world, and what they are doing with their limited time on Earth. They are the same people who will die too soon and leave little behind other than a name and a social security number.

The key to living a happy life is not to accrue many things, but rather to find joy in the little things that are already happening. Piggy-back rides, hot showers, and dreams about falling in love are all positive messages that tell us life is fun. One does not need high-end, expensive binoculars to enjoy a rainbow for a reason.

Life is complex and meaningful in many ways, but none of them require money. While making enough to survive in a comfortable state is important, so is learning to enjoy those things in life that do not have a requisite surcharge. Movies are fun, but so is laying on the grass in a park naming stars at night.

Your assignment this week is to go find something small you enjoy. Write it down and try to do it every day, every week, or otherwise regularly, depending on how much time it takes and how much enjoyment you receive.

Tell us how you feel about the little things. Are they opportunities for joy spread throughout the day, or are they stacking up against you, waiting to take you down?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Image by Pink Sherbet Photography via Flickr

The main goal of this blog is to teach small business owners working from home and college students alike the art of living balanced lives. Personally, I define living balanced as being happy with progress and continuing personal growth without limiting or becoming obsessed with professional growth.

A balanced person is automatically a true Renaissance man or woman: art, history, literature, science, and mathematics are an important part of life on a daily basis, though not necessarily in traditional forms. Balancing a checkbook counts as math, for example, and reading the news will suffice for historic value.

Balance is less affected by what you do and more by how you do it. A balanced person knows the secret of all things in moderation and can tell you anything you want to know, both tactfully and honestly.

A balanced person is miles closer to Enlightenment, Nirvana, or Heaven, or whatever you wish to call it, than all others, because he or she knows where to look while we stumble around confused and misguided.

And that is why I strive every day to live a balanced life. With balance comes fulfillment. With fulfillment comes happiness. With happiness comes progress. With progress comes inspiration. And, finally, with inspiration comes balance.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.