Money is important, but it is useless if pursued without a sense of balance
Every fool has a theory about the secret to happiness, or even mere survival. So why not me? I’m a fool. I have theories.
This, however, is not so much a theory as a recipe. Three simple ideas, one healthy result: a good life.
None of these elements is more important than the other. Rather, each relies on the other. The three are linked together in a delicate balance. If one gets out of whack, the whole stack of cards comes tumbling down.
Have I mangled enough metaphors for you yet? Let’s get this started.
Resource security + physical security + emotional security = good life
Resource security
Once upon a time, ‘resource security’ referred to food and shelter. Today, it refers to money – so we can buy food and shelter. At least part of the reason that so many rich people are still so unhappy is that they place too much emphasis on resource security at the expense of physical or emotional security (or both). They work too hard, or for too long, costing them opportunities to exercise, play, or spend time with friends and loved ones; or they let the stress of a job undermine their emotional well-being because of the promise of increased riches that ultimately don’t contribute to overall well-being.
Money is important, but it is useless if pursued without a sense of balance. There’s evidence that after a certain point it doesn’t increase our happiness anyway. A recent Princeton University study found that after a threshold of US$75,000 for annual household income, people are not going to feel substantially happier with their lives.
Physical security
You only get one body, so you have to make it last. If you can also make it fit and healthy, then you might even enjoy it. The benefits of physical health are almost too obvious to write down, but because this particular paragraph would be too short without at least some of them, here I go. Physical health is good because: it helps avoid illness and disease; it enables you to do more things and see more sights; it makes you more attractive to potential sex partners; and it contributes to your emotional well-being.
Emotional security
This is perhaps the most overlooked element in our modern capitalist society. And I don’t mean to suggest that we all start visiting therapists. Too often we prioritise money over emotional well-being.
Instead of choosing to live in a modest dwelling that is close to our place of work, for example, we might choose to live in a big house that requires a long, stressful commute to work (and, as Slate says, long commutes can cause obesity, neck pain, loneliness, divorce, and insomnia).
Instead of taking time out to enjoy the things we love – arts, entertainment, sports, socialising, gardening, reading (all stress-relieving activities) – we might over-work ourselves in the pursuit of money, substituting awesome things for shitty things; a double loss.
‘Emotional security’ sounds airy fairy, but anyone who has been depressed knows it is not. It is as important as physical security and resource security. Each feeds the other. If one falls, the other goes down with it.
There. Now you know how to be happy. Go do it.
