We often hear that money does not make happiness. If this assertion is generally accepted, some even say that the opposite is true. Others have tried to make it more accurate by making a point: money does not make happiness, but it contributes to it. If we start from this postulate, a question arises: how?
Everyone wants to be happy. In search of happiness, there are many ways and it happens that among them we find ourselves lost: rare indeed are those who lead there indeed.
The link between money and happiness
If we stop for a moment to take the time to look around us, and also to examine ourselves, we will undoubtedly notice that among these ways, that of money is the busiest. Most people are in pursuit of money, because it is through the latter that they seek a better life.
But if money allows for a more pleasant and comfortable life, it is easy to realize that it is not always those who have the most are happiest. If money contributes to happiness, it is not because of its quantity, but because of its quality. In other words, there is a way to spend it that could help us be happier.
How to spend your money once you've won it hard
Researchers have been looking at the different ways of spending our money and, in trying to get their hands on the one that would be the best, they might have found it.
This way of using money is to prefer spending it for experiments rather than material things.
Dr. Thomas Gilovich is a professor of psychology at Cornell University in the United States and has been studying for decades the connection between happiness and money. At the end of a study he conducted, he came to the conclusion that we tend to buy material goods to be happy. Property against which our satisfaction would diminish little by little and which we would eventually adapt after a while.
That is how there would be something more important than property for Dr. Gilovich, and it would be the experiences we are experiencing.
Living new experiences makes you happier
Experiences would bring us a greater and above all more lasting joy than the acquisition of material goods, the moment of pleasure they create fades away quickly.
On the other hand, our lives consist of the sum of our actions, what we see, the places we go to and the things we live in, not the sum of the goods we surround ourselves with.
Dr. Gilovich states on this subject:
"Our experiences are more part of us than our material goods. You can really love your possessions. You may even think that part of your identity is related to them, but they remain separate from you. On the other hand, your experiences are really part of you. We are the sum of our experiences. "
By living new experiences and acquiring new knowledge, we adapt to new situations and develop a new state of mind that we may never have acquired with the purchase of a new object.
In addition, the experiments allow, unlike the material goods:
- To create links with other people
- To learn and discover new things
- To open new horizons
- To have a new vision of things and life
- Create beautiful memories
- To develop one's personality and become a better person
Is not it time to give up the next purchase you plan to make to invest in something more impactful?
