What Is HAPPINESS And How I Define It?

Today, I am going to touch on a very fluid or subjective subject: Happiness. Happiness is the very thing that everyone wants in their life. But what is happiness and how do you define happiness anyway? 

For me, happiness is very individual and subjective i.e. one person’s happiness might deemed as another person’s bare minimum or non-event. Thus, the key is not to compare but measure your happiness basing on the invisible “ruler”/”scale” of yours.

To put it simply, I definite happiness as the moment when we immersed ourselves in our life’s purpose/objectives that we set out to do/to be. Thus, true happiness can only be materialised when we know what to do or who to become! 

Of course, this is not a simple question to answer. We tend to complicate our wants and trying to achieve too many different things at one go. There is no right or wrong to this but the question is do you feel happier after your achievement? If yes, good for you as you’ve found your purpose in life; If no, keep on searching.

I personally broken down the purpose of life into 2 broad phases:

1.     Phase 1: Serving self (this is the phase whereby we are improving the quality of our life)

2.   Phase 2: Serving Others (this is the phase whereby we are improving the quality of other people’s lives).

Of course, both phases can occurred concurrently. Thus, as and when we are involving in the activity/plan for the above Phase(s), satisfaction kicks in and that's when the happiness flows.

To support our involvement in the above phase(s), we need 4 pillars which I defined as:

1.     Money  - The keyword here is “sufficient”. No one will openly claimed that they have too much money or wealth (even though it might be true for some). Thus, as long as we have sufficient money to serve ourselves and others, we should be able to achieve happiness.

2.    Mindset – The keyword here is “positive”. We need to cultivate positive mindset or optimism in our dealings with life so as not to be easily defeated by difficulties/challenges.

3.     Health – The keyword here is “good”. Many will tell you that health is the most valuable asset you can have and this is true. Without good health, it is harder to achieve true happiness (I said harder and not impossible!)

4.    Relationship – The keyword here is “strong”. Relationship is the things that we deal with our heart. It could be the relationship with your family, friends, spouses, religion etc… Strong relationship will ensure that our heart is at work and that's important for true happiness!

To help you understand better what I really meant, I’ve developed a simple picture to illustrate the points above (I hope this picture speaks a thousand words):

What do you think about my definition of happiness? What’s your definition of happiness in your life?

Cheers!