Yes, it can! But the hard truth is that earning high income can give you happiness but not beyond a limit. Yes, it feels very delighted to see a five or six digit number getting printed in your passbooks every month. But after few initial years that will turn a routine and will not excite you much as it used to.
As humans, we have always strived to achieve comfort and luxury.While it all started with just getting good and cooked food, it has now turned to huge houses and big cars and what not. Everyone is really working hard to achieve all this by increasing their income levels. But it’s very subjective at what income level one gets happiness. For most, after a certain point, it’s not the income but factors like health, relationship, and sense of purpose turn important.
There are actually two types of happiness. There’s the first one which is changeable, depends on your day-to-day mood or on how much stressed you are or how emotionally sound you are. Then there’s the happiness due to deeper satisfaction and joy you feel about the way your life is going. So the thing is, it’s not the income only that gets you the happiness you need but also many more factors or things. If your income has the potential to get you these factor/things as per your requirement then, yes, your income can give you the happiness. But what if some things can’t be altered by just money? Then your income level being at its peak can’t come for rescue.
Past research on earning high income and happiness have also found that it’s not absolute wealth that’s related to happiness, but relative wealth or status — that is, how much more income you get than your neighbours or relatives defines your happiness. This is a mentality which is growing way beyond its expectations these days. People don’t know a their source of happiness firmly. But, as discussed money can be your source of happiness but until you know how much money. The uncertainty about this will leave you with only frustration and disappointment even if you are getting maximum income that you can get.
Since childhood, we have been hearing that we need to study well or else it could be difficult to survive in this competitive and over expensive world. It was very rare to hear someone saying, study for your happiness or get a job which will give you happiness and satisfaction. This has been the case because happiness has always been at number two and money (income) at number one. Having said that, even after getting high salaries, all amenities and luxuries a life could offer, people still feel void in their lives. Why so? Isn’t there sole aim in life to earn adequate income giving them the happiness they deserve? The truth seems to lie in the middle: “high income don’t bring you happiness, but they do bring you a life you think is better.
As it is rightly said by Bob Marley ‘Money is numbers and numbers never end. If it takes only money to be happy. Your search for happiness will never end’
