Tag Archives: happiness

Does money make you happy?

Daily life, , ,

A few weeks ago, a couple from Scotland won the biggest ever UK Euromillions draw. But will their newly found riches make them happy?

I shouldn’t have thought so. For starters, if you win £161m you better keep quiet about it. Unless you want hordes of hangers-on camping outside your house, begging for money, harassing you wherever you go.

On a personal note, I’ll soon find out if money does indeed make you happy. I’m about to sell my house in Italy, which should find me with cash in my account of a 5-figure-sum. Nice. I’ll sure report here how happy it’ll make me (though I’m already pretty happy. How happy can you actually get before your head explodes?).

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A New Start

Daily life, ,
A black and white cat.
Image via Wikipedia

OK, I want to get back into blogging. No agenda this time. The posts will be shorter and less frequent, and will be loosely connected by the theme of How to be Happy.

For I am happy.

Oh yeah, I might also be trying new tools etc. that make my life easier, or play around with things. Or talk about my cat.

How to be happy no. 1:

Having a cat.

Edinburgh Fringe Inspiration

Art, Culture, Scotland, , , ,

The Fringe 2009 has now ended. This year, the BF and I went to see a fair amount of shows, in particular, those of the Laughing Horse Free Fringe. Here, performers pay nothing to the venues they use, but they also don’t charge the punters. It’s a win-win situation: The venue (often a pub) gets extra customers buying drinks due to ‘free entertainment’, while the performers get (hopefully) a larger, more enthusiastic audience.

But how do they get paid? The deal is that we, the audience, pay on our way out – in line with what we thought the show was worth. This keeps the performers on their toes, and allows (ideally) for a more authentic experience for everyone.

I’m mentioning the Fringe in my quest to reiterate my desire to become a writer. This blog’s function (hopefully) is to turn into some kind of scrap book, where I collect and note down all the things that will help keep the flame alive and put me onto the right path. Because, let’s face it, with a job that is sometimes ‘enjoyable’ and ‘rewarding’, I’ll be in danger of just forgetting all about it again. And waking up in 10 years’ time only to find that I haven’t contributed anything to the world.

The inspiration of the Fringe, then:

  1. There is a different life out there, and people are living it
  2. So can I

From liking to disliking work

Daily life, Work, , ,

I used to like my job.

I used to think it fulfilling – stimulating, challenging, always keeping my brain on its toes (that’s when I feel most alive – by keeping the brain active, ever-expanding, forever learning new things). It was interesting – and no matter how difficult it was at times (think: working unpaid overtime for months on end, high levels of stress, inability to sleep as a result etc.), I still went back for more. I actually thought that’s what I wanted to do not only now, but in the longer term.

Since then, the new, exciting, forever-learning aspect has become old and as a result, not interesting. Days are now defined by a tired wariness – cramming in far too much boring, non-interesting stuff into the confines of the working hours.

It seems that this is the rule, not the exception – most people dislike their job. I however do not accept that ‘this is the way it is’. What a waste of one’s life it would be!

Disliking work is good. It’s a driver for change, and for claiming back what is yours.

Life = bringing the self to the place where it can be free.