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What makes people happy?

Monday October 5, 2015

 

What makes you happy?

You will never be happy as long as you spend your life focusing on yourself. We have been lead to believe that we can exercise, acquire, or achieve our way to happiness and this is a problem. We tend to think: if physically I look the right way, if I own the right stuff or if I achieve the right things, then I will be happy. What is funny is that we look at others and say to ourselves, if only I looked like that, if only I could have the things they have or achieve what they have achieved then I will be happy. This does not necessarily mean that when we look at others we desire to be like them. What happens is when we look at and admire others we desire to have their looks, wealth, and achievements because we think that this selfish combination will bring us happiness. What is amusing here is that often times the people we admire and wish to copy are not happy. Self-centeredness will never lead to happiness.

 

The road to happiness is counterintuitive.

 If we were to consider the numerous studies concerning happiness, we would see that year after year, the road to happiness is not a mystery. The road to happiness is in fact counterintuitive because it removes the focus from oneself and places it on others. We can never exercise, achieve, or acquire our way to happiness but we can certainly serve our way to happiness. The United Kingdom analyzed forty different studies that had taken place over the course of twenty years. The primary focus of the studies was the connection between volunteerism (serving others) and health and happiness. This in-depth analysis concluded that people who volunteered (served others) suffered less from depression, heath disease, stress, substance abuse, and unplanned pregnancies when compared to those who did not serve. The study also concluded that those who served others had greater psychological and physical health, more self-esteem, and longevity as well as quality of life. To sum it up, people consumed with volunteering as opposed to   consumed with their own selves were happy.

If what you want to be is happy, then the best thing you can do for yourself is to stop focusing so much on yourself and instead place greater emphasis on serving others. Perhaps this is the reason the Apostle Paul in the second chapter of his letter to the Philippians said that we should relate to each other the same way Jesus did, by voluntarily choosing to serve others. Jesus did this despite the fact that He was God. This may also be the reason why Jesus told His followers:

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. – Matthew 16:25 NIV

Heavenly Father it’s because you want to be happy  that you ask me to serve others, because you know that selfishness will never lead me to happiness. Help me to be the selfless person that Jesus modeled for us.