Why searching for happiness is a terrible idea

On a scale of one to 10, how happy would you say that you are?

I asked this same question to a good friend of mine while we

were having sushi for lunch.

And his response was not unlike others.

He said he was around a seven out of 10.

Then I asked him what it would take to get him to attend the conversation that

we had after this question changed the way that he looked at happiness for.

In the next three minutes, we're going to discuss why searching

for happiness is a terrible idea.

I'm Amin Ahmed and welcome to be well do well.

All right.

So back to this story, if you recall, I asked my friend what it would take to

get his happiness from a seven to a 10.

Now he mentioned things like more money or better health, more free time.

Of course the six pack is always in there.

We all want these things.

Some others may have said that they want more cars or jewelry or a vacation.

Well, there's nothing wrong with wanting these material things.

The problem comes when we use them to hold our happiness hostage.

This is exactly what I said to him.

I asked him, why are you holding your happiness hostage to more

money or a new car or a new.

When I realized that I too was holding my happiness hostage, using money,

time, physical things, it really liberated me just knowing that this is

something that I was doing consciously and realizing that that really changed

the way I thought about having.

Why should my happiness be determined by external factors?

Could I not simply choose to be happy with what I have now without

any conditions or strings attached?

That's the question I kept asking myself, what can I do now to be happy on a scale

of 10, right at that 10 or maybe even 11.

At that point, I made a conscious choice not to allow outside

factors to control my happiness.

I decided that I was going to be an 11.

. I should point out here that while you can be 10 on a happiness scale, you can

also still feel sad, angry, disappointed.

These are all natural emotions and you should feel them.

You shouldn't hold them back and you shouldn't bottle them up.

So you see searching for happiness outside of yourself really is a terrible thing.

There is always going to be somebody else that has more money that has

a nicer car or a bigger house.

And if your happiness is attached to your value based on what you have materially

or how you look physically, of course, you want to feel healthy and you want

to be healthy, but being skinnier or more muscular, that's really taking

it outside of who you are and saying that this is how somebody else sees.

So, let me ask you again on a scale of 10, how happy are you now?

That's all for today.

Come back tomorrow to learn about how to get more done by

slowing down, have an awesome day.