Everyone Deserves to be Happy

It’s one of the founding principles of our country. After all, it’s right there in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I more than 100% agree with this. If you think you deserve to live a great life, shouldn’t everyone else deserve one too? After all, we are all human and all created equal. Everyone on the planet should be able to live the life of their dreams. We all deserve to live the best life possible.

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Happiness – An Overview

The reality is, you have to work hard to get to your ‘ideal life’. A little luck has got to get thrown into the mix as well. And who knows if you’ll even get there or if you’ll change your mind along the way. And even if you get to your perceived ‘ideal life’, what you achieve might not be what actually makes you happy at all. We humans are fickle creatures.

But I get it, you only have one shot at life – you have to at least try to lead the best possible life you can. Hell, if you don’t fight for your happiness, believe me, no one else will.

Theoretically, let’s say it was possible for everyone to live the life of their wildest dreams, what kind of toll would that take on the planet or the environment? Imagine if everyone could buy all the homes, vacations, yachts, planes, cars, gadgets, and consumed as much as they possibly could? I’d be afraid to see how fast the earth’s resources would dwindle and how much waste a society like that would produce.

The real question is:

Can the world support everyone’s happiness?

Short answer:

The Earth literally can not sustain 8 billion people living at a multi-millionaire level.

Hell, if the whole planet lived like the average American, we would need 5 Earths to provide the resources for everyone to live at the same standard of living. I came across this interesting (but depressing) factoid at: Overshootday.org/how-many-earths.

The main premise of the website is to show us at what point the combined peoples of the world overshoot the resources the planet is providing: Overshootday.org/overshoot-day. For 2019, humanity used up 1 years’ worth of Earth’s resources by July – just over halfway through the year. Nothing for nothing, if that isn’t an indication that we are living unsustainably, then I don’t know what is. Globally, we are currently ‘using up’ almost 2 Earths per year. Something is going to break if we keep going at this rate.

Current consumption rates are unsustainable in the long term. Modern society and all the associated activities are directly causing the degradation of the environment and depletion of resources of the planet. No two ways about it. If everyone lived like billionaires, the destruction of habitats, the environment, animal, and plant life is surely guaranteed.

Fact of the matter is: the world can’t support everyone’s current notion of consumer bliss.

And since previously poor cultures are slowly modernizing, over utilizing the world’s resources will become even more prevalent. But don’t the poor of the world have the right to pursue a quality life and not live in squalor. Don’t they deserve happy lives too? Is it fair that some people live lives of extravagance, while others are starving?

Never Enough

What does it take for everyone to be happy and live their life to the fullest extent? Does everyone live their fullest life as the average American? I would say no, the average American isn’t necessarily always content; they still have to work and can’t just live a life of leisure on a beach sipping cocktails all day. But to the average 3^rd world denizen, an average American life might seem like heaven.

There is even such a broad spectrum of happiness levels between countries. Check out this little infographic:

Americas - Happy — Check out more at: Visualcapitalist – Global Happiness

I think it’s safe to assume that financial well-being does somewhat play a role in happiness levels. But does the practice of buying ‘things’ actually make you happy? Americans, who are supposedly “rich” and can buy a lot more “stuff” compared with the rest of the world are actually slightly less happy than Costa Ricans, who overall, have lower disposable income than Americans per capita. There must be more to happiness than just money or being able to buy “stuff”.

That begs the question, do we really need to use that many resources to be happy? The crux of the problem is – how can everyone live their fullest life while balancing it against the finite resources of the planet?

Any way you slice it, we’re always “grabbing for more”; always pushing the bar higher. We never feel we have enough.

Never Enough. That’s really a thought-provoking concept to mull over. As humans, once we hit a goal, we rush past it like it didn’t even exist. We’re on to the next hurdle and so on. In some regards, it’s good that humanity is wired like this because we’re always challenging ourselves and progressing as a species.

But in terms of happiness, it’s kind of sad to me that we can’t just enjoy the simple things and appreciate what we have in the present.

This needs to change, because if we’re taught that having more stuff – money, material goods, gadgets, etc., is going to make us happy, things will quickly escalate out of control. Then there’s no way there are enough resources for everyone to lead “a happy life”.

Wealth - Happy — Everyone wants wealth – it’s just never enough. *Source: UBS.com*

The graphic above illustrates “never enough” perfectly. We can see that at each wealth level, individuals always want more money. If you have less than a million, you want 5 million. If you have more than a million, you want 5 to 10 million and so on. It’s just never enough.

Redefining Happy

We should be figuring out what actually makes us happy. Is having more money, having every gadget, or a huge fancy house in itself make us happy?

I can’t answer those questions because it’s different for everyone. But for me, I found real joy in the simple things: spending time with my friends and family, experiences, travelling, my relationships, adventures, learning new things, challenges, and overall work contentment. Some of those things cost very little to nothing.

Happiness might mean something else to you. You might need to trail blaze your own path to find out what truly brings you joy. Do not follow common societal beliefs just because “that’s just the way it is”. What actually brings meaning to your life?

Things that bring you enjoyment don’t have to actually cost a lot of money. There are many studies that prove this. The idea that you have to have a lot of money to be happy is not necessarily true. While earning a decent wage definitely contributes to happiness by meeting your needs and then some. It’s only up to a certain point. Studies have shown that increased emotional happiness above $80,000/year (in US dollars) only increases negligibly as one earns more.

Cash - Happy — Who doesn’t want a pile of cash

The question gets another layer deeper; how can everyone be happy and not over stress the planet’s carrying capacity? I hope to explore some interesting ideas down the road to help give our species and, for that matter, all life forms, the room for infinite happiness; but for now, we’re all here sharing this one world together.

Where Does True Happiness Lie?

So, what can we do? I think the first step is we need to redefine and/or find out what actually brings each of us personal joy. So, I can’t really answer that for each of you, but more often than not it’s not going to be that impulse buy on amazon, but instead, might be a hike with an old friend. I’ve found that adding more love into your life while reducing the negatives are a good place to start. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Obviously, answers vary widely, and they all really depend on what “makes” you happy.

Although, a good start to living a happy life is to expect less, live for today, enjoy your work, don’t compare yourself to others, and choose to be happy. Yes, choose happiness. Amazingly, some can simply make the choice to be happy and, boom, that is their reality. If one could choose happiness in every situation, you wouldn’t need all the material status symbols of the world. You could be super content with just your basic needs met because just being alive is heaven – talk about ultimate sustainability. (Definitely a skill that I still need to work on!)

Sometimes the best perspective can be gained from looking back at one’s life and through those who have already lived full lives. Through those eyes we can gain some insight into the key to happiness. In the Top 5 Regrets of the Dying, one of the most poignant themes was:

“Living a life true to yourself, not the life that others expect of you.”
– Bronnie Ware (see book recommendation)

Yes, everyone deserves to be happy, but we need to re-frame where one can find real joy. Happiness does not need to come at the expense of the planet’s resources or others. Happiness is not found in material wealth or products, but instead comes from within.