Money is nothing more than the means upon which we make our wishes come true. Thing is, our wishes are often illusions that do not end up going as planned. Thing of it much like an ICO. Everything looks good, developing team is solid but the project eventually does not deliver.
Part of the reason is that our brains cannot process the future as well as we wish to believe they do. A new car, sexy girls, exotic houses, can undoubtedly give a hormonal kick for a while. No doubt. Nonetheless, our physiology is unable to hold the 'high' for too long. Eventually, there is a correction back to base.
I have witnessed this at least twice in my lifetime. By age 25, I believed that I have done pretty much everything a human being could experience. I was living pretty wild and took many risks. This allowed me to evaluate some things more thoroughly and ponder about what really matters in life. Some risks were highly rewarding. Others, well, let's just say that I am lucky to be alive.
There is no need to list my endeavours since for every person the list varies. Some people find satisfaction when they put their names on book spines. Others when they help or be appreciated by others. Others when they spend money on luxuries. Heck some get a kick when they live on the edge. For most, having a family can do the trick. Even trolling can provide happiness as the internet has demonstrated. There is really no real answer no matter what self proclaimed gurus and philosophers are trying to say to you. Humans are extremely peculiar beings.
Whatever path one might chose, the formula is pretty much the same: You begin by having an experience that has been culturally shilled. Then your neurotransmitters kick in, providing adequate pleasure juice that eventually results in a feeling of satisfaction. How much does that last? More or less much like a really good ganja brownie. For some is estimated to be weeks, for others some months! Whatever might be though, it cannot last forever. I won't list the research about "how long happiness lasts" because it's all pretty much subjective depending who you are, where you are from and when you are from.
We are pretty awesome in self-delusion. For example, if 100 people get together and start pondering on the possibility that a flying elephant that grants eternal life can provide ongoing happiness, that group will devise the means to sustain this belief. If 1.000 gather around ridiculing them then the belief won't hold as strong. Our minds are as amazingly imaginative as they are gullible. We want to believe some things for our own sake and other people's reassurance is what we all have in our disposal. We devise words that provide meaning, even if the word meaning has no intrinsic meaning on and in itself.
Happiness is much the same. We believe that it exists because we have constructed it out of necessity. Money, the means by which we exchange goods and services, enable all sorts of paths in order to reach a given meaning that will provide happiness. In much the same way a knife can perform a surgery, cut meat, commit murder or cut a rope. The means of the knife depend on the situation. Many reject money as much as they reject knives, heck even happiness itself (like I do) — hence why life gets so confusing.
In a greater perspective money can't really buy anything. It can only rent. A house will eventually wither. A currency will lose its value. The act of "buying" is all that is, and it is completely disconnected from the aim which is happiness. Nothing can be bought with the intent to last. We all live ~80 years give or take. We can rent pieces of happiness when the markets are up (or down) but we can never really own that is doubtful that it exists at all. Remember the juices I aforementioned. Many confuse pleasure with happiness and things even get weirder with masochists.
I hope I have confused you enough to make you ponder about happiness in your own way. Let me finish by reaching out to our community that might <get it by using a different example: Renting happiness is much like buying futures for a coin that never really manifests as a final product. We believe that it exists, but only lasts for a while. Just about when the hype is about to die and lose all hope, we baghold the failed one and jump onto the next. At the end, we have no idea what we are holding, how much it is worth. All that remains is the hype for the next ico.
Having money can prevent a class of worries, but most will merrily continue worrying about other things.
Few are content when the basics like food and shelter are covered and they don't have to worry about those. Somehow, having no money dissatisfies, for very practical reasons, but having money doesn't satisfy.
Completely agree. I would to your sentence "...having money doesn't satisfy, long enough"
I noticed that when you are old enough and already now that, it doesn't satisfy at all anymore 8-).
Money doesn't buy happiness, it buys the things that make you happy!!
More seriously, I think money alleviated stress (how do I pay the mortgage etc) and offers opportunity (travel, not to work etc). It makes happiness more achievable
Money is indeed a tool to acheving hapiness but dont gurantee it. Good post indeed, upped. Keep steeming to more success.
Feel free to see my latest post about how I exposed @dan ´s secret plan to take over the world. More success to you .
This post received a 4.0% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @kyriacos! For more information, click here!
There is upper limit on wealth after which you will not get happier as you get richer. :D My life goel is to reach this point and then just chill :D
Money makes the world go round... great post! :D
Everything is temporary in this world , we spend our whole life chasing money and making that our happiness that we tend to forget what happiness is. Yeah we can buy things to make us happy but we work so hard to make that money and we save so much for what ? We can't take anything to the grave with us , in the grave , our status will be the same @kyriacos
Actually it can buy happiness , when you have a lot of many you can create the world you live in and shape it in way that suits you and that will give you happiness . But indeed there is a lot of things money cannot change .
Be careful of recent and future icos. People are using them to con people and even good projects often dip quite a bit after launch. I would recommend waiting a month or two after the ico and make sure development and progress is being made. One love. Money doesnt buy happiness. It doesnt even rent it. It's a magnet for corruption and elitism
life is a con game.
not really, if one understands dualism and remains centered the con game stops. I write extensively about it. The problem with philosophy as a whole is that it is mainly a left-brained discipline.
I have a smile on my face when I run into people who get it
How far does society have to go before grasping that the monetization of knowledge, time and value does not work? https://steemit.com/basicincome/@earthcustodians/reality-is-realistic-why-is-universal-basic-income-rationally-unworkable
Why people wanna make happiness eternal when there is nothing permanent in this world. Happiness is the journey, not the destination. Just accept it as it comes and not get too attached to it.
Illusion, delusion, and hallucination are what we own, what we actually possess in any sense of neural states.
So if we're going to go to the considerable trouble of assigning one range of those states the label "happiness", it turns out really stupid, and self-defeating, to make any assumption any thing or experience can MAKE us happy (directly induce that state- we still have to administer that drug, perform that meditation, view or hear that beauty, engage in that activity, and it has to affect our neurology in a certain way, for the concept "making us happy" to be other than oxymoronic).
Stay focused and everything will be amazing 😇
Yeah for sure. Money cant buy happiness, buh it's better to cry in a Lamborghini lol.
Beautifully written. UPVOTED!
nice post. Look like Upside down ♠
That sounds like the Biography of Elon Musk.
hmmm really great article. Nothing is forever. Emotions, feelings, life, loved ones everything is temporary... especially happiness.
I just try to look at things with gratitude, no matter how fleeting the moment is.
HMm renting happiness... now that's a new idea. I would image that to be like hope? Even if it is temporary, maybe more will come? does that make sense?
yeap. as much as happiness does.
good luck
nice post
"Everything in moderation, including moderation." — Oscar Wilde
more money more problems... maybe the more time you get to ponder about life when financially stable creates another class of worries, that you previously didn't have time to think about?
nice..
👌👌👌👌👌 Perfect mind!
Real happiness hiding in small moments .
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Great results! Thanks for sharing
I always liked the two arguments about happiness. One being that we do what gives us the most amount of pleasure and least amount of pain. This was countered with if that was the case we should go through life with itching powder and a back scratcher.
The question is how money helps you serve for love! And this brings happiness! It may be that man does not need money to serve for love - then this is probably a happiness that does not depend on the economy! Thank you @kyriacos for deep thoughts!
money cant buy happiness but it can get the things that makes us happy , it enables us to be happy , it guides our path towards happiness :)
Jesus said
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth
and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."
Happiness can be thought of as a carrot on the stick game. We are ever chasing it never really being fully satisfied. Whether it's love, fame, money, jewels, adventure, we chase and chase and chase.
But that is not a bad thing necessarily. Greatness comes from being unhappy with our current circumstances. That is quickly followed up with the need to better, to have better. Money is just one of those tools that we can use. It is a means to an end. Not the end. We all need capital for our dreams to become a reality. The problem is when money becomes the end, in which case we will never be happy.
Honestly, the best we can hope for is to be happy with every each small individual win we make in life. That also includes waking up in the morning, having health, and the people around you, who love and care for you.
Money can't buy happiness, but can buy beer, which is the same thing.
They say money can't buy happiness ...and they may be right... but I'd rather be crying on a yacht than a raft...anyday.
I will never let my wealth be defined by the balance of my bank account. What really matters is the richness of our subjective reality. The experiences we choose to create, the relationships we nurish, the intentions we set, the love we attract, the value we share, the beliefs we crush, the insights we aqcuire and the truth we embody. From this stems awareness, wisdom, knowledge, authenticity, confidence and faith; all essential elements in discovering and fulfilling our highest calling in this cruel, beautiful but most of all magical game called Life. The road can be painful and scary but knowing that it will lead us to the purest form of satisfaction, fulfilment and contribution in life definitely makes the journey worthwhile.