On Happiness (Expectations)

There is a direct link between happiness and expectations.

We are most happy when we are doing things that we are simply happy to do, with no expectations attached whatsoever. This will include perhaps all leisure activities, and doing things with loved ones. We expect no results from these actions, and simply enjoy the process.

The next level of happiness is when we are doing things that bring us closer to eternal life or God. This might seem expectationless as well, just like the first level, however, upon closer understanding, there is therin the expectation that all these actions will bring us to Heaven after death. Nonetheless, these expectations are unfulfillable during our lifetime, and hence we can keep such hopes for our entire life. Hence, the happiness can still be rather sustained.

The third level of happiness are when we are doing things to stay alive. This refers to the fundamental essentials of food and shelter. It is hard for the modern day middle-class person to actually differentiate this from luxuries, ie. what is essential and what is luxurious.But people who work and do things just to stay alive will experience this.Their expectation is simple: just to stay alive. Staying alive would satisfy them.

The fouth and lowest level is where most people constantly circle in. This is the level where we do things to enjoy or better our lives. This refers to all our actions which we think will improve our lifes, ie. buying a car, chasing a girl etc. Expectations in this level are never-ending.The irony is that most people naturally descend from the 3rd level to the 4th level of happiness as their incomes increase. This can be seen as the working class to middle class sturggle.

We will then realise that there are different facets to everyone's life and noone can actually be classified in any one of the levels as different activities in our life would most probably be classified in the different levels. Hence, how happy we are can be determined by the amount of time we aportion to each levels. The happiest person would spend most of his time doing Level 1 activities and least on Level 4 activities and vice versa for the unhappiest person.

The happiest person will be the one who knows himself best, and is able to identify the activities he would be happy doing and the people to do it with, and have the ability to carry it out.