Most Peoples Priorities are screwed up.
You work harder for a new TV than you do to comfort a grieving friend, a larger house is more desirable than a sense of contentment and why save the world when you can save up for a smarter looking car?
Everything we see is an advert for a product: the clothes your boss wears, the brands your favourite celebs endorse the houses your friends brag of. Everyone around you is obsessed with things so surely you should be too. Expensive possessions must come with happiness, mustn’t they?
Im sure these things would bring you happiness beyond words. Money is the greatest bringer of happiness the world has ever seen, check out the tails of depression, suicide and murder of these “happy” lottery winners.
If riches and expensive items were truly the bringers of happiness you would never see a depressed celebrity, no millionaire would ever commit suicide and the rich would be the friendliest people on the planet because they would also be the happiest.
You may by now have realised I do not think you should chase money. But don’t get me wrong having money doesn’t make you a bad person; look at all the good bill gates is doing to the world. All I’m saying is that money is not going to make you happy.
The smartest people in the world have found a way to be happy despite their circumstances. You cannot control your surroundings, but you can control the way you react to them. It is a conscious choice to be happy, just as it is a conscious choice for most people to be miserable as they go about their life.
“It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” – Charles Spurgeon
To become unconditionally happy you have to do it consciously. You have to learn to have a deep appreciation of things you would usually have taken for granted, find happiness in the simplest of things and you will always have something to be happy about. And surely happiness should be the biggest goal for all living creatures to attain.
Stoicism is the way that you can achieve it. Stoicism is a way of life, a philosophy of life developed to bring happiness to every individual. Unfortunately we are not educated on how to be happy, we are taught algebra, geography and literature but not how to be happy. I stumbled upon stoicism and I want to share it with you.
The basis premise of stoicism is to remove all fear and anxiety from a persons life and to only be happy. That is the aim. To achieve this a person must contemplate how there life could be worse so that they appreciate what they have.
Do not seek to own what you value, seek to value what you own.
Every day a stoic develops themselves, develops their appreciation of life and every day a stoic will get happier. Ancient philosophers like Marcus Aurelius (Roman emperor) practiced this philosophy to make themselves and the world better. All that is left of these people are there writings and so that is where I refer you next. If you seek happiness I strongly encourage you to educate yourself on it’s origin.
The best books on stoicism:
Desire and achieve 