I’ve read every post, book, and article I could find about happiness. I vividly discussed this topic with anyone who was willing to do so. I seriously contemplated every answer I ever heard about what makes people happy. My honest conclusion is that most people have a general idea of what will make them happy, but rarely they have the full picture. Furthermore, unfortunately, listening to lose advice about happiness rarely will make you happy and it is more likely to have an opposite effect on your general state of wellbeing.
What Other People Say Will Make You Happy
I was inspired to write this article after reading yet another post that someone shared with me about happiness. A quick summary of this post reveals 10 things that will make you happy:
- Family and close friends
- Power of now
- Understanding your childhood
- Life goals
- Chose work that you like
- Be social
- Do intellectually challenging activities
- Get fit
- Connect with nature
- Have fun
This article does not build much upon any one of these topics. It essentially just lists them and call this happiness. But what about other things that can make us happy, like ice-cream or marijuana?! What about a brand new house, a nice car, a million dollars in a bank account, meditating under a tree, and so on? These things were not mentioned in the article, neither was considered that all these things can make you happy, but it is also rather possible that you will still be unhappy.
Lets, for example, look at point #7: To do intellectually challenging activities. I know a lot of very smart people who are not happy. In fact, some people (mistakenly) claim that the more intelligent you are the less happy you will be. This is article does not address this happiness myth.
Danger Of Loose Happiness Advice
People are always looking to be happier. Our whole society is built around this idea of the pursuit of happiness. Aristotle even claimed that everything we do is for the sake of happiness. But we are still unhappy, depression is at its all-time high, and despite people having more materialistically wealth than ever, we are also more lost than ever. Why is that?
In my professional opinion is that we are unhappy because we don’t have fully understand what makes us happy and we are easily satisfied with articles like this, which are incomplete. They give general advice but don’t address some caveats, which is where most people get in trouble.
Solution Is Easy: Get Informed!
We spend countless hours and money trying to be happy. We chase happiness all our lives and we did the best job we could. Thus, if we are not happy, it is not because of a lack of trying. As Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”, so let’s do something different.
I hint at the solution all the time. It is on this website, it’s in my book, its in one-on-one calls with me, or group calls. Whatever you like. So, do you want to spend even more countless hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to figure how to be happy? Or can you solve it with a book or in a span of a few hours by talking directly with me for what seems to be a fraction of price in comparison? It’s all up to you. Either way, the solution is here and there are no more reasons to complain that you are unhappy :)
3 thoughts on “Why Is There So Much Wrong Happiness Advice Out There?”
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Dear Zovre, thank you for your and your niece’s interest in our website! I will reply in more detail to your other comments on the other blog posts :)
Great quote, thanks for sharing!