Happiness and Satisfaction

Did you ever hear that old George Carlin bit about new and improved? He used to say that it irritated him how commercials and advertisements everywhere boast about their new and improved products. His point was that a thing could be either new or improved. But not both.

I mean, think about it, if something is brand new it has not been changed or upgraded, simply by the definition of new. And once a thing has had changes made to it, to make it better, thus improving it, it is no longer new. If you use the old item as a template to assist you in making a new item, you can improve upon the old idea, but the new item itself is not improved. It is simply an improvement of the old item. In such a case the old item would be improved and the new item would be new. Simple right?

Well happiness and satisfaction work kind of the same way. While it is technically possible to be happy and completely satisfied at the same time, it is very unlikely to happen. And in fact if it does you are likely deluding yourself somewhere. What makes me say this?

Both are states of mind. And although they seem similar, especially if we are just comparing dictionary definitions, they refer to different things.

Happiness is a choice, one that many people, for whatever reason, do not select. It is a positive filter that we can see the world through. It colors what you say and do, how you interact with others and how they react to you. It is a general way of being. And once chosen its an always on thing that only changes when you decide to make a new choice and no longer be happy.

Satisfaction is more about a comparison between your vision of everything you want in life and what you currently have. It is about ambition. And not just the idea of one day taking your boss's job. Its more than that.  It is about your ambitions in every aspect of your life whether they be financial, spiritual,religious,mental or physical. The size of your family, who your friends are and what kind of people they are, where you live, what toys you have for your amusement,what level of education you have, how you spend your free time, all these things that you have, when compared to your perfect vision of life determines your overall satisfaction with how things are.

For a happy person, a temporary appearance of unhappiness is generally only a reflection of dissatisfaction with a current event. Once that even is handled the person goes back to their generally genial nature.

Here is the key and how it ties in to the Carlin bit. Being happy is healthy and natural. But being satisfied for any real length of time is not. The reason for this is once we reach a goal it is perfectly natural to make a new goal, to always desire and strive for more. This is not greed. It is simply the way life works, constantly pushing on to learn more, do more and see more, to steadily increase itself.

It is when this increase of life stops that dissolution and death set in. So I wish you every possible happiness and a great dissatisfaction with life.