MEDIA SCENE
Happiness Is Personal
By Susan Atieno
Are you happy ? What defines your happiness ? What do you consider to constitute your happiness ? What makes you happy ?
Is it even necessary that you experience happiness ? Is it necessary in life ? What is happiness ?
In this article on my column in Marketing Africa magazine I would like to demystify happiness and give some very personal opinions about this topic , that will hopefully come in handy in your own personal journeys .
Numerous things make us happy in life , it could be a promotion at the work place , gifts , vocations , parties and celebrations , money among others .
According to the dictionary , happiness is characterized by feelings of joy , satisfaction , contentment and fulfillment . Following this definition , I would ask , are we consistently satisfied , content and fulfilled ? Are we always content with our career or position at work , always fulfilled with the amount of money we have ? Is our satisfaction in direct co-relation to happiness ? Again I ask , are we as individuals always satisfied , content and fulfilled ?
In a world where we have a lot of negativity , wars , death , high cost of living , broken families among many more negativity , how then can we still achieve happiness ?
As much as the factors mentioned above tend to give us happiness my question to the reader is are they permanent , always attainable or achievable ? Is it every day that we have a celebration like a wedding to define our happiness ? No . Does anyone receive gifts all the time to warrant happiness ? Again , No .
How many times have you hoped to get a promotion , toiled and worked long hours , brought in new clients with hope of getting that promotion only for your hard work to be awarded with more work ? I bet countless times !
What of a salary increment ? Yes , you got one 2 years ago before Covid hit and your happiness was unmatched ! However , 2 years down the line , no increment is forthcoming
“
Create value for things and people that make you happy ! If someone doesn ’ t create time for you , just know where you stand in their lives ... It ’ s as personal as it can get . One man ’ s meat is indeed another man ’ s poison , and unless you want to keep poisoning yourself , keep eating meat that that doesn ’ t belong to you . yet work has tripled and the cost of living has sky-rocketed . I can continue creating these hypothetical scenarios and I believe that we all can relate .
Does it then mean that we live miserable and unhappy lives because our current situations are not defined by feelings of joy and satisfaction ? Once again I say No . Let us not fill permanent situations with temporary solutions . For me , all the factors that make us happy identified above are very mechanical , passing and temporary . They are like a wave in the sea , they come so strongly , big and visible but just like the wind , they pass on like they never existed ! Yet these are the things we ‘ claim ‘ to bring us happiness .
Entrenching Happiness In Our Lives
This is how I would treat happiness to try and make it permanent in whatever situation you are in ;
First , know your priorities in life especially by identifying things that make you happy , those that sincerely bring you joy , things that are personal to you , not influenced by another person . What really makes you happy ? Let me give an example of myself , I recently re-defined my priorities to ( God- Myself ( this was not here ), Family-Friends .)
Anything that brings me closer to God or requires me to serve God is a priority - it not only brings me fulfillment but immense joy .
The soul reason why I brought myself as a second priority , is because I had
88 MAL49 / 22 ISSUE