Every one of us seeks happiness. It’s natural to want to feel good. But it’s not always easy, and our strategies aren’t always the best. In this blog post, we’ll look at the sources of happiness and what to do in order to bring more happiness into your life.
Ladder of Happiness
You can think of happiness as a ladder, consisting of five sources of happiness:
- objects
- experiences
- growth
- contribution
- mindset
Each of these can bring you joy, but the higher up the ladder you go, the longer, the stronger, and the deeper the happiness is. Think about it: It’s the joy of buying a new pair of shoes vs. the joy of having a mindset of gratitude and optimism. But let’s look at each of them individually to understand them better and learn how to move upwards on the ladder.
Source #1: Objects
At the bottom of this ladder, we have objects. It feels great to get a new pair of sneakers or ride your new bike. Because of this rush of joy, we get when we obtain something new, many of us feel inclined to buy stuff when we feel down. Comfort eating or comfort shopping also comes from this kind of happiness. It works, but it doesn’t work for long. So in order to live a happy life we shouldn’t rely too heavily on this strategy.
Source #2: Experiences
So to level up, we might focus on gaining experiences instead of objects. We travel the world, we try things out, we explore. However, even this might not be enough for lasting happiness. As soon as the experience is over, you’re back to feeling dissatisfied. You perhaps shot lots of photos, posted them online, and can take joy in the likes, but this also passes.
Source #3: Growth
To make more out of your experiences and your objects, you can use them to grow yourself. So instead of going here and there, and trying this and that, you can dive deeper into something and use that experience to develop yourself personally. You can visit a country to learn their language and you can buy a guitar to learn an instrument. This will give you a stronger sense of lasting fulfillment than just randomly doing or owning stuff.
Source #4: Connection
But even this can be leveled up by not only focusing on yourself but also focusing on others. Connection, community, and contribution are great sources of happiness. You probably know the saying “the more, the merrier”, and this can also be applied here. Doing and being something for others feels awesome. So use your newfound guitar skills to play a happy birthday song for a friend, and you’ll feel a lot happier than when you were just playing for yourself.
Source #5: Mindset
The last step of the happiness ladder is your mindset. Instead of acting in the external world, we look within and reshape our thoughts. It’s very easy to focus on everything we don’t have. If we, however, learn to see and appreciate everything we already have, we always have a reason to feel happy. This could be called a mindset of abundance. So in order to achieve happiness, go on and develop awareness for everything wonderful in your life. Be grateful for every bit of it, and you’ll undoubtedly live a much, much happier life. Check out this post to find out more about how to develop a Mindset of Abundance.
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