What does it mean to be truly happy? This is a question that I felt that I had been spending my entire life trying to figure out but at each turning point where I thought I knew what the definition of happiness was. I found out I was wrong and that happiness isn't something that is easily defined and it means many different things for many different people.
I was born into this world without much and not given many opportunities but with 7 billion people on the planet this is probably more common than not. What is an opportunity or what is enough to have a good start? The fact that I had food and the ability to eat and good health was more than many others are faced with daily.
I spent some time in my youth homeless and not many possessions but I still had food as my community fed me, the many store owners, the families the people I went to school with. All chipped in and helped that gave me an opportunity. But in those days I longed for wealth and money because I was miserable and I thought that if I had enough money it would make me happy.
I didn't focus on the love and care around me, I felt as if I was a burden to people and not able to look after myself. As a kid you feel powerless and you probably are as you make your way through a world with many unknowns and new experiences each one for the very first time. You search for happiness and a place of belonging.
At the age of 15 I started to develop a plan to become happy which entailed getting rich, it wasn't anything spectacular or involved crime but was about what jobs I wanted to do. I got my first job earning $2.50 a week, it was part time and I was earning $75 a week and saved a large portion of it while covering what I had to.
I was only in that role for a short period until I found a roll in a factory and I remember my first proper pay cheque for $380 for the week. It brought me great happiness and a whole new world opened up but with the added cash came more unhappiness as I learned it was too much to receive support and not enough to live.
I continued to save and develop more plans and goals to achieve and worked through them one by one.
One of those goals was to go to uni and I saved up the cash and used our deferral loans to get my education. It was hard working shift work to make ends meet and study I did many 24 hour days and so many times I was tired thinking how easy it would be to give up but a preserved.
I remember thinking if i ever have kids I don't want them to go through what I have and I needed to be financially sound before I took that plunge.
I finished uni, worked my way up and got lucky on a few projects where my life of poverty paved the way for successful projects. Many people I work with come from well off wealthy backgrounds but they lack the lived experience where as I am able to apply my projects to my lived experience in a way that gives me an edge and the upper hand.
My wife and I are a dual income earning family and our finances are nothing to be amazed at but we get by. I learned that money doesn't make you happy and that the more you have the more you need.
There are two things in life that truly define happiness in my opinion.
Setting goals and achieving them even if they are short term goals the moment you complete them the feeling is euphoric and you can go onto the next one. Or perhaps you have a few on the go.
Most importantly, smile. I can not speak about the power of a smile pure joy and bliss.
Frown less and no matter your circumstances in life take a moment to smile at all the good things you have. You're alive, you're healthy and you can do anything!
That is my definition of true happiness, what's yours?