In order to find out the answer, the author Naoki Honda went to the top Nordic countries in the "World Happiness List" to interview local residents. Every time he asks the same question, that is, "What do you want?" Honda directly asked "things", but in the answers he got, he could hardly find any specific objects related to "car" or "house", and all of them were "I hope my family is healthy" and "I hope my friends and people I know can succeed".
If you ask the Japanese this question, as a local, I think quite a few people will answer it with concrete objects. Today's Japan is full of things that people can satisfy immediately, and the excessive satisfaction of instant desires interferes with people's long-term planning and planning for the future. From the answers of the Nordic people, we can find that they abandoned the old materialistic values, advocated the simple lifestyle of "less is more" with simple material and rich spirit, and cherished the happiness brought by spirit and experience more, and invested time and money in it.
Extract some interviews:
I think the less things you can choose, the easier people will feel rich. Japan, because people can choose too many things, will inevitably be fascinating. If you are in Denmark, you know exactly what you want, and it is easy to tell what is most important to you.
-Ambassador Parker Tanaka of Florida, Denmark/employee of shipping company
I think Swedes are a people who are not too worried. There are no natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons here. Everyone can live as he pleases, and there is no problem if he wants to study all his life. Because we have nothing to do, we don't feel any pressure, and we don't need to take it too seriously ...
-employee of Andreas Ribeirubeck/Sweden/Ericsson
People living in Finland have a special sense of balance. Because we can wander between natural pastoral scenery and city life, and we can also take care of personal entertainment, life, career and work. Although we pay high fees, we can also enjoy superior benefits. Although the Japanese have many things, they will never be satisfied, because their inner sense of balance has long been broken.
-Hirosuke Nakamura/ Finland/Furniture and grocery store operator
First, from the era of addition to the era of subtraction
Have you ever experienced that in an era of relative material scarcity, our happiness often comes from the pursuit and acquisition of money and material? You can be happy when you buy a color TV at home, because you will be happy for a long time with your dream bike. However, the freshness and excitement brought by material are often short-lived and impetuous, and only lasting and heartfelt feelings and experiences are the source of happiness. What's more, today's material resources are abundant, and it is not difficult to get them, let alone get happiness from them. It's time to live a life of subtraction. Only by learning to discard and simplify things and pursuing inner experience more than adding things can people feel calm and joy.
Second, try to live in a twin city with distinct work and life.
Always staying in the same place and doing the same thing every day, it is inevitable and difficult to make new discoveries-it is a great choice to change your permanent residence and try to live in two cities-which does not require you to bear extremely huge expenses. In the view of the Nordic people who are probably the best at life in the world, the core of life in a twin city is that there are two completely different environments to choose from. Even if every residence is simple and simple, as long as it can meet the needs of normal life-working in a convenient and prosperous area and staying away from the noise in leisure. This way of life can make people feel spiritually satisfied and full. Living in twin cities has many advantages, such as taking advantage of the price difference between the city center and the suburbs to live and get in touch with new stimuli and experiences; When the social environment changes, this flexible life can also give you the right to choose.
Third, lower the "threshold" and choose only what you need.
Learn to lower the threshold of satisfaction, that is, you are no longer bound by external things. When you can't control yourself, buy one thing after another that you don't need, and compare what you have with others, and your satisfaction threshold will be high. This behavior can also be called consumer infectious disease. And people who meet the low threshold will be happier. The amount of income and assets is not directly related to how many things you like, as long as you can control your freedom of income and expenditure. What matters is whether you think you can "buy everything you want and do everything you want".
Don't think that lowering the threshold of happiness is a bad thing. It is not austerity, but active choice, which makes people feel satisfied.
Four, the ten conditions of "new happiness"
1, enjoy your work
This has nothing to do with the salary, but whether you are happy at work, whether you feel challenging and fulfilled, and whether you can learn something; Keep growing and making progress, and feel satisfied with it.
2. Have close friends and family.
If the work goes well, but there is no family and friends to share it with, it will be unpleasant, let alone very happy.
3. Have a stable economic source.
This does not mean that you have to have huge assets, or you have to have a fairly high income, as long as you can satisfy your stable life.
4. Physical and mental health
Only with a healthy body and mind can we work, live, struggle and make progress wholeheartedly.
5. Have an exciting interest and lifestyle.
After entering the society as an adult, I am used to binding people's circles with interest circles, but without one or two interests that I can fully enjoy, there can be no purely utilitarian social circle.
6. Have a certain amount of time freedom
Have your own time and be able to accompany important friends and family.
7. Choose the living environment that suits you.
No matter what job you are engaged in and how you live, choosing a suitable living environment with your heart is related to happiness.
8. Have effective thinking habits
People who always shirk their responsibilities and act as victims, people who are often in a negative state, people who habitually make excuses, and people who are limited by inherent common sense and are difficult to break through, are hard to meet happiness.
9. Be able to look to the future
The first reason for the decline in happiness index is that people can't see their future and then feel uneasy.
10, I feel that I am moving towards my goal.
A step-by-step and purposeful life is practical, and the happiest feeling is always on the road.
5. How to get happiness in the new era?
The so-called new happiness is to get rid of the shackles of foreign things such as money, time and place, and let us have freedom again. Honda Naoki gave the following suggestions:
1. From "practicing economy" to "actively choosing simplicity"
People in the Nordic countries with the highest happiness are not good at self-discipline and extreme frugality in life, but decide to live like this spontaneously after careful choice. It can be seen from the fact that the wealthy class in the Nordic countries still live a simple life that this belongs to their "active choice". Although they are simple in material, they are rich in spirit. Putting time and money into accumulating life experience and feelings, rather than spending it on pursuing material things, will produce spiritual prosperity. Once you form a simple living habit, you will enjoy it.
2. From "having money" to "having time"
Whether you are eager for money or time, you must figure out why you want it, so that you can control it easily. If you don't know the purpose of pursuing and owning them, it is meaningless to get more.
3. It is better to pursue freedom than to pursue status promotion.
If a person is promoted in the company, we generally think that he has a higher status and becomes the final winner in the competitive environment, but at the same time, you should know that he may also face more working hours, more complicated interpersonal relationships and greater performance pressure. If you change your mind, as long as the job can make you full of sense of accomplishment and make you grow professionally, that's the right choice.
It is better to work in a first-class enterprise as a freelancer.
Being a freelancer not only has a good income return, but also has a free working style, which is much happier than office workers. In the United States, a quarter of the working population belongs to freelancers. If you want to be happy, you should be close to the essence of work and seek satisfaction and freedom from the sense of devotion and accomplishment that focuses on the work itself. We don't advocate that everyone should resign from public office and engage in freelance work, but we advocate that even an office worker should try his best to create a flexible working style that can be freely played and decided by himself.
Instead of selling yourself blindly, it is better to help.
If you are inferior in your work and want to be on an equal footing with those who are superior, you should learn to be neither humble nor supercilious, love and be confident. You should focus on self-improvement instead of trying to sell yourself. When you can help others, it means that you have succeeded halfway.
6. Be a person who does not rely on any platform and speaks by strength.
Being in a high position in a famous enterprise will naturally make people from all walks of life flock to it, and even neighbors will envy you: "Your work is really good." But once you leave the company, will your aura fade? But in today's Internet age, if you can keep learning and use new media, it doesn't matter whether you have status or reputation in the past. The person who can continue to shine and heat in the end must be someone who speaks by strength without relying on any platform.
7. Face difficulties with optimism.
The feeling of hard work comes from "being forced to do it" and the pleasure comes from "taking the initiative to do it". As long as we have the consciousness of adjusting our mentality, it is possible to turn the hard work in the eyes of others into our brand-new happiness.
8. Maintain your independent thinking ability.
If we are bound by the inherent common sense, we can't get new happiness. Because common sense is the experience summed up by people in the past, it is naturally difficult to get rid of the old values if you believe in common sense. Everyone should think about "what is happiness" and don't let those materialism affect you.
9. Niche market is more consumer.
Whether you are working or starting a business, you must aim at the minority. The niche can gather strength, and it is easier to feel the enthusiasm of the brand, and the sales performance is of course more remarkable.
10, we should pay more attention to the accumulation of personal brands than short-sighted salary increase.
Don't blindly chase after what is in front of you, but cherish the opportunities that follow. In this era of lack of sustainability, the only way to ensure sustainable development is to constantly improve one's ability, build one's own personal brand and promote the promotion of one's reputation.
1 1, working in cafes, parks, gyms and other places.
The way of working in modern society is not limited to a symbolic office, where you work all day. As long as you can finish the work on time, it's no problem to try mobile office. Don't stick to the specific form of the office, you can treat all the places as your own office!
12, expand your world with lifestyle.
It is very important to master a language that anyone can understand, such as sports, wine, food, culture or history, because it promotes your lifestyle.
13. Compared with short-term happiness, long-term and sustainable "small happiness" is more touching.
"Little Lucky" is such a kind of happiness-although the desire itself is not huge, as long as it can really make people feel, even if it is really insignificant, it is enough to make people live a good life. "True happiness comes from one's own experience, which is accumulated by a little casual joy in ordinary life.
14, deliberately pursuing some "inconveniences" in the era of convenience and speed.
In this convenient and fast era, people need to deliberately pursue some "inconveniences". If "inconvenience" is forced, it will be very painful. If it is an active choice, it may be more fun, which is conducive to the formation of new stimuli and lowers the threshold of satisfaction.
15, more important than money is spiritual fulfillment.
Whether you get a sense of accomplishment from teamwork or continue to learn and grow with a meager salary, as long as you are happy and fulfilling, the pressure will gradually resolve. Let yourself grow in your work, and you will constantly find new challenges, make your work interesting and have confidence in the future.
16, improve work efficiency and change the habit of "emphasizing quality"
Efficient work can bring a sense of accomplishment, and a continuous sense of accomplishment can create a highly satisfying life state.
17, from "others-centered" to "self-centered"
In the process of experiencing life, if there is not enough self-judgment training, it is easy to be influenced by others. Remember to stick to what you want for a long time.
18, change the established lifestyle every day and enjoy the change.
Seek change, like change, enjoy change! It will definitely bring you countless new encounters and new discoveries.
conclusion
Remember the question at the beginning?
In fact, happiness is always on the side of positive choice. Less material possession and more spiritual experience can embrace the happiness of the new era.