How happy are you? With the current asset you have, current health condition you have, current relationships you have or with the life you are having? Your answer should be somewhere around yes, you are moderately happy. Now, think again. Deeply. Think about your everyday life. Think about all the targets you planned to achieve soon. Think about what you don’t have but you wish to own. Make a 2 minute tour on these points and now you say how happy are you? This time I believe your happiness is reduced. You should find a lot of pain points in your life. It can be for your asset, can be your kids or can be the objective good condition of some of your friends or neighbors. If you are what I just said, then you have a silver medalist mindset. And if you have a silver medalist mindset, then you are like most modern humans.
Who is the silver medalist? Think of a running competition. Where after the race 3 persons got rewarded as first, second and third. The first one got the Gold medal, the second one got the Silver medal and the third one got the Bronze medal. Now the person who has got the silver medal, he has the biggest regret. He will think, if he would one minute earlier then he could get the gold medal. On the other hand, the bronze medalist should be happy. He would think that if he was one minute late, then he would get out of this podium! He is happy after seeing the participants who are not in the podium even after getting a bronze medal. On the other hand, the person who is in second position is not happy even after getting a silver medal!
Don’t mix it with the ambition of your life. I am not saying we should not have any ambition. But which one is ambition or dream and which one is comparison and dissatisfaction – to understand this you can check the next paragraph.
Nowadays human happiness doesn’t depend on his objective reality. Human happiness depends on his expectation. And this expectation is created based on the objective reality of others. Let’s have an example. If you see one of your friends has a fancy sports car, your expectation for a personal car will be based on this. You will also expect a sports car whether you need it or not. Now say you have got a TOYOTA SUV. Will you be happy? Normally you won’t, because you are seeing the gold medalist. Not the bronze medalist or out of podium people!