DOES A LOT OF MONEY MAKE YOU HAPPY
A few years back I had the opportunity to meet a person who had almost anything to go by and perhaps never seen to grumble about any of those things that usually bothered most of the folks like us. He had inherited several acres of land and his family was quite well known and his wife and himself had the best of homes and divided their time between the ancestral property which he had inherited along and the huge villa which he had built himself and another one, a bungalow, which he was planning to build at some hill range. Apart from that he had a farm house somewhere and three sleazy looking cars. Again, their children went to the best of schools in the town and luckily enough they were quite dutiful to their parents and studied well. I was working in a company then and had gone there with a friend of mine who had some business with him. We talked about this and that after my friend had finished the business part of it and he then forced us to take tea and snacks with him as it was afternoon around 5 pm Indian Standard Time. During the casual conversation this gentlemen stated quite frankly that he envied people who had something to do and that having a lot of money and wealth alone was rather boring thing. We politely laughed and gave our usual comments stating that the grass is better looking on the other side and so on and told him about our own difficulties. When we parted we smiled and shook hands and then made our way back to our respective homes.
The incident may perhaps look as if it was nothing and as we both thought of it too that particular day and commented upon our hosts immense luck and our own misfortunes.We also commented upon our host's good humor as to mention that he really enjoyed the little time we spent with him that afternoon and perhaps was trying to be a trifle cleverer by pointing out his good fortune comparing it with that of ours as many rich and well to do folks usually do by passing that wry remark about his grandiose display of boredom. Later, we laughed all the way back feeling grounded and when we parted our ways to reach our homes, we never gave another though to that mock remark nor even mentioned it once to our friends.
That incident would have been removed from my mind, at least the remark if not the person who was so immensely rich and was living a happy married life that it would be difficult to do so, but for yet another chance meeting with yet another person who although himself wasn't so rich yet had a compilation of such traumatic patients who were fed up with life and took to drugs, attempted suicides and tried to lead a distorted life by their own designs although they had nothing to worry a bit financially in the worst of the global recessions. The person who told me this was a medical practitioner and this was conveyed to one of my friends who then was a medical representative and we happened to visit his place together.
After hearing a list of those poor rich I tried to humble my own mind about the idea of becoming or getting quick rich as I then like the rest of my generation thought there was hardly anything in the world that matters except making a quick buck, the bigger the better, and then living on it as anybody would dream without doing any work for the rest of their life. The more I thought the more I became perplexed, for no matter what I could then drive the point into my mind no further, for I too like many others had come to the conclusion that this was some sort of rare mental disease which only the awfully rich gets. But to tell the truth this wasn't the case as there was something quite different from our own angle of thinking and that struck me much later-a few years after.
THE FLOW CONCEPT AND THE STAGNANT AFFECT OF MONEY /WEALTH
Illusion of happiness is the most Horrifying thing in life. Some behave as if they are rich and the fact is that they are full of debt and this thought is eating into their conscience all the time. Then there are others who by their virtue of being lucky with a little property think about other wealthy people known to them personally or are in the limelight and vicariously try to chart their own life in tune with that of these people little knowing that this illusion shall not last long and sooner or later they would revert back to their old unhappy self. The problem is that these people are never true to their own self and this is perhaps the single biggest sign of unhappiness.
Now where does this flow concept of money and wealth come into the picture you might ask Well, the answer is that these are again acts of conscience on a person who would naturally remain happy irrespective of whether they possess large wealth or nothing as he or she experiences a flow of income on a regular basis and that flow is created quite true to their conscience and with effort. This means that lump sum money or stagnant money or wealth can bring in happiness, but for a short duration only and not forever. It is actually the flow that creates true type of happiness, of course with all other things like family life, children, social mixing and other such remains quite all right. In other words, activity or activities that instills the conscience of the mind continuously has to be created which then can bring in true enjoyment of wealth. Thus, the necessity of flow of revenue. A static wealth even if it yields good return on investments and interests has less to offer in the form of life enjoyment than the periodical trickles that comes with some sort of exertion instilling the mind and the conscience that the effort made isn't in vain.
THE REAL ESTATE MAGNATE AND THE CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT
I have yet another example to highlight the point which I am trying to make. This is the comparative study of happiness of a real estate business man and a Chartered Accountant. Money wise there can be no comparison between the two as the real estate magnate has large properties which he had bought at a cheap rates. Indeed, here in this example the real estate business man is a millionaire and the Chartered Accountant just well off with good number of clients to his credit. During recessionary periods the real estate magnate is without work as he has large tracts of property that could not be sold out. On the other hand the Chartered Accountant's office is buzzing with life and even if the delay in payments have slightly aggravated. He is still busy and doesn't count his eggs before they hatch as the work he does is more or less on a continuous basis for his clients whereas for the real estate businessman he simply counts his future money while remaining out of work with an idle office and a group of yawning staff which inevitably irritates him too. Just think who would be happy in such circumstance? Where of course there is buzz with money flow on a regular basis than bogged down by uncertainty of some future fortune.
Here, the happiness through money can only be had if there is a continuous flow of it (small or large amount doesn't matter) so long there is buzz and there is a lot of activity. In my example above too there is no buzz which the money makes or which would keep the conscience of the rich man active enough. Hence, he is bored stiff of the life which he tries to enjoy and which deep in his conscience rebels upon. Further, continuous activity can eclipse the evil comparison that the mind frequently resonates when consciously idle. This needn't be what a person tries to put up before the public or his family, but the fact that something is amiss remains within his subconsciousness.
DANGERS OF CREATING ARTIFICIAL BUZZ
If you have a lot of money then you might think why not try to keep an artificial buzz with it alone. Nothing wrong, but happiness couldn't be had by cheating your conscience. In fact, we see a lot of people with money trying on Betting and Gambling as if they have nothing to lose. But the fact is that you get chained in these activity and thus you may lose all you have built by hard work. Then there are retired people who once they retire invest their savings in some business without even a good plan and then lose it all at the fag end of their life. For keeping up with the continuous buzz called activity you must be prepared to create a flow that is less risky here. Yet on the other hand simply doing nothing can make you liable to fall victim to the vegetative state of mind. Diseases like the otherwise Impossible Alzheimer's Disease and senile dementia becomes quite easily possible. Here, mind you I am not suggesting that you shouldn't aim high or think about big money, but the fact I wish to state here is that you must be able to churn the large amount to a positive purpose on a continuous basis. Great Charity is a good way to create flow if you have a lot of money to give on a continuing basis. However, for most people this is not possible and thus it fails to create the buzz and activity in your life as it remains either a one way flow and rather unaffordable. Hence, there must always be a continuous revenue necessary to sponsor a continuing charity work.
Then there are people who instead of remaining idle opts for some work on the pretext that others like themselves are too involved in such activities. A friend of mine knew of a retired judge who after having retired thought of taking up gardening and tiny scale farming although he had no idea about it at all. Of course, he did try to learn and tried his hands on various seed plantations, but proved a failure and was soon got fed up simply because he didn't have the heart in it. Thus, activities of any sort and perhaps more so if you try to earn something out of it, should be taken up by that person only if he or she has a heart that is totally involved in the task. Otherwise, the whole thing becomes a washout. In short, this buzz called 'continuous activity' should be done with a positive mind and that you feel that it is part of your life or the post retirement life. Again, this is not so easy as you would love to imagine, but a carefully thought out process where you take up a money earning activity on a continuous basis for true happiness. Some people have plans to spend the rest of their life wandering around the world just like that after they receive a large legacy or get a large chunk of money. Well, the truth is that these people can do so for a few years as if it it some sort of invigorating activity, but soon enough you would hear them remark that after seeing one beach is almost like the rest or one place has no particular distinction than the other. The fact is that deep inside their subconscious they are not properly active in the truest sense of the word and that what they do is simply trying to adopt a boring idle policy that has simply no responsibility and a sense of achievement.
Therefore, it is important for people to achieve that state of mind where happiness becomes a second nature and that state of mind can only be achieved if the person tries to engage in a continuous buzz creating activity with a purpose driven mind. And don't always think of money only the happiness of being in the job.
A few years back I had the opportunity to meet a person who had almost anything to go by and perhaps never seen to grumble about any of those things that usually bothered most of the folks like us. He had inherited several acres of land and his family was quite well known and his wife and himself had the best of homes and divided their time between the ancestral property which he had inherited along and the huge villa which he had built himself and another one, a bungalow, which he was planning to build at some hill range. Apart from that he had a farm house somewhere and three sleazy looking cars. Again, their children went to the best of schools in the town and luckily enough they were quite dutiful to their parents and studied well. I was working in a company then and had gone there with a friend of mine who had some business with him. We talked about this and that after my friend had finished the business part of it and he then forced us to take tea and snacks with him as it was afternoon around 5 pm Indian Standard Time. During the casual conversation this gentlemen stated quite frankly that he envied people who had something to do and that having a lot of money and wealth alone was rather boring thing. We politely laughed and gave our usual comments stating that the grass is better looking on the other side and so on and told him about our own difficulties. When we parted we smiled and shook hands and then made our way back to our respective homes.
The incident may perhaps look as if it was nothing and as we both thought of it too that particular day and commented upon our hosts immense luck and our own misfortunes.We also commented upon our host's good humor as to mention that he really enjoyed the little time we spent with him that afternoon and perhaps was trying to be a trifle cleverer by pointing out his good fortune comparing it with that of ours as many rich and well to do folks usually do by passing that wry remark about his grandiose display of boredom. Later, we laughed all the way back feeling grounded and when we parted our ways to reach our homes, we never gave another though to that mock remark nor even mentioned it once to our friends.
That incident would have been removed from my mind, at least the remark if not the person who was so immensely rich and was living a happy married life that it would be difficult to do so, but for yet another chance meeting with yet another person who although himself wasn't so rich yet had a compilation of such traumatic patients who were fed up with life and took to drugs, attempted suicides and tried to lead a distorted life by their own designs although they had nothing to worry a bit financially in the worst of the global recessions. The person who told me this was a medical practitioner and this was conveyed to one of my friends who then was a medical representative and we happened to visit his place together.
After hearing a list of those poor rich I tried to humble my own mind about the idea of becoming or getting quick rich as I then like the rest of my generation thought there was hardly anything in the world that matters except making a quick buck, the bigger the better, and then living on it as anybody would dream without doing any work for the rest of their life. The more I thought the more I became perplexed, for no matter what I could then drive the point into my mind no further, for I too like many others had come to the conclusion that this was some sort of rare mental disease which only the awfully rich gets. But to tell the truth this wasn't the case as there was something quite different from our own angle of thinking and that struck me much later-a few years after.
THE FLOW CONCEPT AND THE STAGNANT AFFECT OF MONEY /WEALTH
Illusion of happiness is the most Horrifying thing in life. Some behave as if they are rich and the fact is that they are full of debt and this thought is eating into their conscience all the time. Then there are others who by their virtue of being lucky with a little property think about other wealthy people known to them personally or are in the limelight and vicariously try to chart their own life in tune with that of these people little knowing that this illusion shall not last long and sooner or later they would revert back to their old unhappy self. The problem is that these people are never true to their own self and this is perhaps the single biggest sign of unhappiness.
Now where does this flow concept of money and wealth come into the picture you might ask Well, the answer is that these are again acts of conscience on a person who would naturally remain happy irrespective of whether they possess large wealth or nothing as he or she experiences a flow of income on a regular basis and that flow is created quite true to their conscience and with effort. This means that lump sum money or stagnant money or wealth can bring in happiness, but for a short duration only and not forever. It is actually the flow that creates true type of happiness, of course with all other things like family life, children, social mixing and other such remains quite all right. In other words, activity or activities that instills the conscience of the mind continuously has to be created which then can bring in true enjoyment of wealth. Thus, the necessity of flow of revenue. A static wealth even if it yields good return on investments and interests has less to offer in the form of life enjoyment than the periodical trickles that comes with some sort of exertion instilling the mind and the conscience that the effort made isn't in vain.
THE REAL ESTATE MAGNATE AND THE CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT
I have yet another example to highlight the point which I am trying to make. This is the comparative study of happiness of a real estate business man and a Chartered Accountant. Money wise there can be no comparison between the two as the real estate magnate has large properties which he had bought at a cheap rates. Indeed, here in this example the real estate business man is a millionaire and the Chartered Accountant just well off with good number of clients to his credit. During recessionary periods the real estate magnate is without work as he has large tracts of property that could not be sold out. On the other hand the Chartered Accountant's office is buzzing with life and even if the delay in payments have slightly aggravated. He is still busy and doesn't count his eggs before they hatch as the work he does is more or less on a continuous basis for his clients whereas for the real estate businessman he simply counts his future money while remaining out of work with an idle office and a group of yawning staff which inevitably irritates him too. Just think who would be happy in such circumstance? Where of course there is buzz with money flow on a regular basis than bogged down by uncertainty of some future fortune.
Here, the happiness through money can only be had if there is a continuous flow of it (small or large amount doesn't matter) so long there is buzz and there is a lot of activity. In my example above too there is no buzz which the money makes or which would keep the conscience of the rich man active enough. Hence, he is bored stiff of the life which he tries to enjoy and which deep in his conscience rebels upon. Further, continuous activity can eclipse the evil comparison that the mind frequently resonates when consciously idle. This needn't be what a person tries to put up before the public or his family, but the fact that something is amiss remains within his subconsciousness.
DANGERS OF CREATING ARTIFICIAL BUZZ
If you have a lot of money then you might think why not try to keep an artificial buzz with it alone. Nothing wrong, but happiness couldn't be had by cheating your conscience. In fact, we see a lot of people with money trying on Betting and Gambling as if they have nothing to lose. But the fact is that you get chained in these activity and thus you may lose all you have built by hard work. Then there are retired people who once they retire invest their savings in some business without even a good plan and then lose it all at the fag end of their life. For keeping up with the continuous buzz called activity you must be prepared to create a flow that is less risky here. Yet on the other hand simply doing nothing can make you liable to fall victim to the vegetative state of mind. Diseases like the otherwise Impossible Alzheimer's Disease and senile dementia becomes quite easily possible. Here, mind you I am not suggesting that you shouldn't aim high or think about big money, but the fact I wish to state here is that you must be able to churn the large amount to a positive purpose on a continuous basis. Great Charity is a good way to create flow if you have a lot of money to give on a continuing basis. However, for most people this is not possible and thus it fails to create the buzz and activity in your life as it remains either a one way flow and rather unaffordable. Hence, there must always be a continuous revenue necessary to sponsor a continuing charity work.
Then there are people who instead of remaining idle opts for some work on the pretext that others like themselves are too involved in such activities. A friend of mine knew of a retired judge who after having retired thought of taking up gardening and tiny scale farming although he had no idea about it at all. Of course, he did try to learn and tried his hands on various seed plantations, but proved a failure and was soon got fed up simply because he didn't have the heart in it. Thus, activities of any sort and perhaps more so if you try to earn something out of it, should be taken up by that person only if he or she has a heart that is totally involved in the task. Otherwise, the whole thing becomes a washout. In short, this buzz called 'continuous activity' should be done with a positive mind and that you feel that it is part of your life or the post retirement life. Again, this is not so easy as you would love to imagine, but a carefully thought out process where you take up a money earning activity on a continuous basis for true happiness. Some people have plans to spend the rest of their life wandering around the world just like that after they receive a large legacy or get a large chunk of money. Well, the truth is that these people can do so for a few years as if it it some sort of invigorating activity, but soon enough you would hear them remark that after seeing one beach is almost like the rest or one place has no particular distinction than the other. The fact is that deep inside their subconscious they are not properly active in the truest sense of the word and that what they do is simply trying to adopt a boring idle policy that has simply no responsibility and a sense of achievement.
Therefore, it is important for people to achieve that state of mind where happiness becomes a second nature and that state of mind can only be achieved if the person tries to engage in a continuous buzz creating activity with a purpose driven mind. And don't always think of money only the happiness of being in the job.
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