[Jelena]

Somewhat inspired by a conversation in the Worst date ever thread I have a question for you:
What is the the most important factor that will bring happiness to your life?
friends
love
a fullfilling job
money

I'm sure this have been discussed before, but not in a while/since I came here.

EDIT: I meant to make a poll, but something went wrong and now I need help to fix it.

[Jelena]

For years and years I thought that my job was the most important thing for me and my happiness. I never said so, but that was how I acted. Family and thus love came on second place.
Now I value my family a whole different way. Friends are also very important. Sometimes I wonder if I could live without love but have good friends. I guess that would work. The other way around: having love, but no other friends would be harder.

[SakSquash]

While I hate doing this again, i'll say that i'm pretty sure that 99% of the problems in my life could be solved with money.

[Dale Baldwin]

Originally Posted by Jelena

EDIT: I meant to make a poll, but something went wrong and now I need help to fix it.

There you go.

[Relek]

While I pity people who care only for money, I feel that money is the key to happiness as it can save one from most of the stress and pain that comes with life, so i'm going with money

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by Dale Baldwin

There you go.

Thanks!

[colpet]

Money is really important; just enough to not have any debt. Since having money (without working for it) is more luck than anything, my real choice would be a fulfilling job. Most of our adult life is spent at work, so having a job you love makes a miracle of difference.
I don't want to lessen the value of friends and love, but those things are more a function of interacting with others. True happiness must come from within, and be independent of reliance on others.

[bulldog]

for me it is love from my family and then friends. I have few friends but they are very close to me. To me money is not a big thing. But, lets just say ( in theory) that I someday hit the lottery then I would take care of my church, put money away for my daughter to go to college, take care of my mother (other then my husband she is my rock) and then me. Those are the things that are most important to me.

[bysmitty]

Other: personal space. For me, having my own space is the most important factor. A place to be alone, a place to entertain others, a place to mess up, a place to clean, a place to personalize, a place to customize. I don't know if I'm making any sense but I just get great satisfaction and happiness out of having some personal space of my own.

...bysmitty

[stepurhan]

Money is only important when you haven't got any. If you look to fulfill all your desires with money you'll end up finding that there are always more things to desire for which you'll need more money,.........

Little digression. In motivational studies there's a theory called hygiene factors. These are things that don't motivate you by their presence. They demotivate you in their absence (e.g. a safe working environment) For the most part I see money like that. It makes you unhappy when you haven't got any but it's ability to make you happy is, at best, restricted.

I don't think I value any one thing more highly than others in bringing me happiness in life. A balance of the factors listed (and a handful of others) is probably the key for me personally. A wife that doesn't disapprove of my friends. A job that keeps me interested without keeping me out until all hours. Basically none of the things that make me happy interfering too much with the other things that make me happy.

[RLacey]

It's taken thousands of years,
trying to chase,
something that's starring us,
in the face.

When life is lost,
all its fizz,
and you're feelin' flat,
you must remember that.

(chorus)
Happiness is an inside job.
If your name is Mary,
if your name is Bob.
It's up to you if you sing or sob.
Remember happiness is an inside job.

A lot of people travel,
in search of the sun,
lyin' and fishing,
looking for fun.

But it isn't easy,
leaving cares behind,
pretty soon...
pretty soon you'll find.
(chorus)

You can have a house,
on top of the hill.
Bank accounts,
worth a couple of mil.

But when you lose your spot,
and your spirits dip,
hang onto,
this little tip.
(chorus)

[Jatsie]

Happiness is an illusion.

[RLacey]

Happiness is when you realise that today will always be better than tomorrow.

[MoriartyL]

I hate money. I never get tired of saying that. As stepurhan says, its absence is a cause of unhappiness, but its presence does not lead to happiness. Having money makes me almost as unhappy as not having money: I'm ashamed to use it, because I know that no matter what I use it for I'll wish I had used it for something else later. And I can't shake the feeling that with every purchase either I'm being ripped off, the seller is being ripped off, or both. And the presence of money serves as a constant reminder that there's only a limited amount of it, and then I'll need more. And getting money is terrible, because I feel like I'm stealing other people's money by convincing them to give it to me and it puts so much pressure on me to be perfect in the job because otherwise it's even more of a theft. I hate money.

Jobs revolve around money, so I dread having to have one. I had a job once, and it made me miserable. It was just a small job (I was teaching a kid Visual Basic), and it was challenging but doable and it was only one hour a week, but I was breaking down. I couldn't handle the pressure of having to earn the money I was stealing. I was beating myself up over the tiniest mistakes, and when I got handed the money I felt like trash. And my whole life seemed to be tied up by that one tiny job, because when I wasn't at it I was planning for it and worrying about mistakes so that I could minimize the misery of the actual thing by minimizing failure. Even if it's a good job (I did enjoy that at first), the deadlines and my obsession with trying to pretend I deserve the money would make it intolerable. I suppose I could say that the most important factor to happiness is the lack of a job.

Love? What's that? I don't love anyone in the world but myself and maybe my cat Pussywillow. I wish I could marry myself. Or at least some alternate-reality version of myself that was a girl.

Friends were nice when I had them, and I look back at that time fondly, and I certainly wouldn't mind having friends like them again, but I honestly don't believe I've ever been as happy in my life as I am right now. I'm content, and that tells me that friends are not the be-all and end-all of happiness.

I'll have to go with "freedom". Nice and vague, and when I get it I am pretty darn happy. Freedom from money, freedom from schedules, freedom to create and freedom to enjoy. Thank God for freedom.

[MoriartyL]

Originally Posted by RLacey

Happiness is when you realise that today will always be better than tomorrow.

..or that could just be simple dread.

[Relek]

Originally Posted by Jat316sob

Happiness is an illusion.

No, it's just that excessively negative people are under the illusion that happiness isn't real

[RLacey]

Aah, but freedom is always just an illusion .

[Hammerite]

Love and friends.
Throughout my life, I have never thought money brings happiness, in fact, I 'd hate to win the lottery because I know we'd probably end up moving somewhere bigger away from all my friends and that would be crap.

[MoriartyL]

Originally Posted by Jat316sob

Happiness is an illusion.

Originally Posted by RLacey

Freedom is always just an illusion .

Is either of these statements supposed to actually mean something?

[Dasilva]

A fullfilling job.