Gretchen Rubin at The Happiness Project considers the effect that comparisons have on happiness. Dennis Prager once observed that if you assume others are happier, that only means you don't know them well enough. I've caught myself envying other people and yet I would not trade positions with them for a moment.
Envy is truly one of the greatest enemies of happiness.
3 comments:
It is perfectly true that comparing yourself to others is a great way to manipulate your mood, and it works both ways. There's always someone better off than you, and assuming you are reading this that means you have access to electricity, a computer, and the internet, which means you are better off than a sizable percentage of people alive today, so rejoice in that.
That's only the beginnin though. When you consider the whole of human history you can easily see you are better off than probably about 99.9% of everyone who has ever been alive, and it becomes easier and easier to be happy even if you live in a hovel compared to your neighbor.
Dan,
Great point. When many people cry for fairness, they always assume if life were fair they'd get more rather than less.
Michael
We also covet things, not relationships, yet our relationships are what fulfill us.
When we wish to be another, we are really wishing for a material possession, even if it is a job or money, but we would never in a million years relinquish our own relationships for such things.
CJG
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