When I was in kindergarten, I saw all of the big kids in first grade who got three recesses in a day, they got to read and do math, meanwhile I was stuck in the glorified daycare known as Kindergarten. I thought, I just can't wait to get to first grade, then I'll be happy. When I got to first grade, I started to notice that there were much bigger kids than I who ruled the school; they were the fourth and fifth graders. They were bigger than everyone else, got to go on all sorts of neat field trips, when I'm in fifth grade, I'll be happy. I noticed the middle-schoolers. Wow, they get to go move between classes, have their own lockers, wow, they're cool! I'll be happy when I'm in middle school. Wow, look, there's a high-schooler, He gets to drive, wow, I'll be happy when I'm in high school! When I got to high school, I saw some people in college. Wow, no parents, total freedom, they don't even make you go to class! I'll be happy when I'm in college! Have you noticed the cycle yet?

Fortunately, I was able to break this cycle once I attended college, otherwise I would look forward to being happy when I get married, after graduation, when I have children, when the children are potty trained, when they grow up, when they are off to college, when they would come home when they have kids, and the like. Instead, I chose to be happy now. You will never be happy when some event happens or when you get a new toy, happiness is now. It's a state of mind. You can choose to be happy, or choose to be unhappy, and that's just the way it is. There are people in third world countries who don't have much at all and lead very simplistic lives, and they are some of the happiest people around.

Money does not equal happiness, period. Money allows you to purchase a lot of toys which can be fun, but fun is not happiness. You can have all the toys in the world, the fancy expensive iPod, a nice car, a big house, you name it, and you still might not be happy.

This has some really interesting implications. If money and happiness are not related, then why do we keep striving to become very rich? Where does true happiness come from? For some of us, including my self, our happiness comes from God. Others it comes from their relationships, and their friends and family. Why do we keep striving to be rich? For men, we tend to keep score in life by how much money we have. Women tend to be much less driven by money, but some still strive very hard to become wealthy. In my mind, having wealth is more about security than happiness. If I had several million dollars in diversified assets, I probably wouldn't be too worried about putting food on the table.

Learn more about this author, Matthew Paulson.
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