Learning the Key to Happiness

Often when you ask someone what they would do when they won the lottery they would tell you things like buy a bigger house, travel, help their family and have fun. They would give up their jobs and do whatever they wanted. This vision of perfect freedom from the things that weigh us down every single day. The debt, mortgage, job and things that just don’t make us feel good regularly would all instantly be gone and in its place a life of luxury and happiness.

Flip to the reality of the lottery winner life after a couple years and the majority of them are broke, in foreclosure on that big house and back working a 9 to 5. They have none of the money left. Their marriage is in ruins and life is more miserable than it ever was happy. Winning the lottery was one of the worst things to have ever happened to them. WAIT … WHAT? How is that even possible? Everyone thinks money is going to solve their problems. Just more than they have or a lot more and things will be more awesome than the LEGO movie song.

It is still one of the truest statements you will ever hear. Money doesn’t buy you happiness and it only sometimes buys you temporary freedom. Your problems follow you regardless of what’s in your bank account. You just can’t outrun them or buy them off. So why do we think that we can solve everything if only our bank accounts were fuller? Why do we think our life will be stress free when we don’t have to worry about money? Why do we think money has all this power that it can make us happy? Granted money is powerful but even its magic is powerless when it comes to how we feel and what’s of quality, real quality in our life. Despite knowing this sage wisdom we continue to believe the solution is more money.

Sometimes the easiest answers is often the one most overlooked and bypassed. Nothing is as simple or easy as it seems right? I agree sometimes things are challenging, complex and quite exhausting to figure out but sometimes they can be easy too. It’s nice when they are easy. It’s nice when it just fits together and poof there’s progress, resolution and things are better. While it may not be as glamorous as winning the lottery it gives us the greater satisfaction and longer term happiness which is what we’re really chasing after isn’t it?

The answer to living free is learning to live naturally.

It is so simple an answer that most of you probably just glanced right over that so I’ll say it again. The answer to living free is learning to live naturally.

Here’s why I believe this is more powerful to our life than winning the lottery. First while it’s good to have money you can live well on less. You can live quite well on less. Case in point, have you ever met a family that was poorer than you but they were always getting together, having fun and it felt just great to be around them? You wish your family got along like theirs or your family had fun like their family. You wish your family had a regular get together where dishes were brought and games were played and long standing jokes were shared over and over again. They don’t care about what they don’t have. They just care about being together, enjoying the company of one another and they make incredible use of what they have. Often the people with less are the most generous to others too. They know what its like to do without and are very often willing to give the shirt off their back to help another without question.