All throughout your life, you have this idea pounded into your head that if you work hard, you will be successful, but how is success really defined? We grow up with the mindset that if we are successful, we can have anything our heart desires but even if we reach this so-called peak success, who is it to say that we will definitely be happy? Success is constantly tied to money. In a way, our world has become so obsessed with the idea of money that we don’t even stop to think about how harmful it can be. There are money incentives placed on pretty much everything we do in life. Yet, money can’t buy the most genuine things in life, the things that truly fill someone with happiness. Money can’t buy authentic friendships or those special but limited moments you get with your grandparents. Money can’t buy happiness.

The true definition of happiness is not rooted from money. True happiness comes from the heart, and it is not something one can purchase. If one defines their happiness by the amount of materialistic things they possess, they will find themselves full of voids that money can’t fill. Products start out as new and exciting but eventually become worn out and the happiness that comes with them quickly disappears. Research from San Francisco State found that people who spent their money on real experiences rather than tangible items were genuinely happier with themselves and their lives. They argued that their money was better spent on memories than materialistic items that would eventually lose their appeal. 

Looking from the outside in, those who are well-off seem to be exceedingly happy with their lives. However, in most cases, they are just putting on a front to hide their discontent. 

Take Kate Spade, for example. She had an empire she had built and all the money in the world. But to her, that was not enough. The scariest part of all: no one knew just how much agony she endured in her daily life. The problem with the world we live in is that when people heard of her passing, they said to themselves, “Why would she do that; she had everything?” One man tweeted about how shocked he was that someone with a net worth of $150 million would take their own life. The world fails to sympathize with just how much pain she was in, and how no amount of money was able to fix this pain. Kate Spade exemplifies the idea that even with all of the money in the world, one is not guaranteed happiness. 

So the next time you think, “if only I was rich”, or “if only I had this”, or “if only I lived that life”, think again. You have the power to decide whether today is going to be a good day. You have the power to change your world. You are in control of your happiness and this control is not something that money can buy. We get so caught up in the world and the constant need for more that we seem to forget that there is always an answer, and no matter how dark things might get, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Hold onto that light and you will find yourself to be a much happier person.