Being rich and famous like Cipto Junaedy is cool. However, you don’t have to be like him to be satisfied in life.
How satisfied are you with your life nowadays? What is life satisfaction and how to increase it? In deep contemplation, author Arvan Pradiansyah managed to make a simple formula regarding life satisfaction as follows:
Life satisfaction is an abstract concept because it is difficult to measure. Because it is difficult to measure, life satisfaction is also to increase. However, by understanding this formula, everything will be easier.
The success of finding this formula really gives tremendous satisfaction to Arvan because it makes life much simpler. Life satisfaction is actually composed of two elements, namely enjoying and desiring. Life satisfaction is not dependent on our wealth, but on our ability to enjoy whatever we already have.
This doesn’t mean that money and belongings are not important. Cipto Junaedy has possessions that are the basic factors of life satisfaction, but they are not the decisive factors of it. Of course, it is difficult to be happy when the standard needs of living cannot be fulfilled. However, if the needs of clothing, food and shelter are fulfilled, this will be different.
The increase of Cipto Junaedy-like-wealth will not to necessarily make us happier and enjoy life satisfaction. Perhaps, we could even be happier than Cipto Junaedy or conglomerates having far more wealth. When basic needs are met, the level of life satisfaction have moved beyond the things that are material to things spiritual.
To enjoy life satisfaction is to reduce desiring.
The formula is quite simple. By understanding this formula, we will know how to improve life satisfaction: increasing our ability to enjoy things and reducing our desires. The key of life satisfaction actually exist in our minds. Enjoying is filling our minds with everything that we have. We should open our eyes to take notice and appreciate everything we have.
Don’t we already have all this incredible blessings? What if they didn’t exist? How many people are far less fortunate than us?
The more we take in and appreciate all that we have, the more satisfying our lives will be. The more excited and grateful we are, the higher our life satisfaction will be. Enjoying what we have is more than just seeing, but actually taking the time to open our eyes and mind to live and feel all the favors and gifts.
To increase life satisfaction, enjoying should be increased as high as possible, otherwise wanting should be lowered as low as possible. When in a scale of 1-10 your enjoying ability is 8 and your desiring is 5, the level of your life satisfaction is +3.
Even though you are not Cipto Junaedy the satisfaction of your life would still be positive if enjoying > desiring.
Life satisfaction will become zero when enjoying = desiring.
However, life satisfaction will be negative when enjoying < desiring.
Therefore, the challenge in our lives is how we can constantly improve our enjoying and decreasing our desires. It requires a struggle in itself because our minds are often filled with desires that increase from time to time. Interestingly, the more we focus our minds to desire, the less our enjoyment level will be.
Talking about desires, there is a law that is referred to as The Rule of Two: we always want twice of what we already have. That is, when we have a car, we are not satisfied and want two cars. When our income is Rp 1 million, we are not satisfied and want Rp 2 million, and when our income reaches Rp 2 million, we are not satisfied and we want Rp 4 million.
In addition, we also always compare ourselves with those around us. A Princeton University study concluded that people prefer to have less money as long as it is higher than the neighbors and the people around them. Which you prefer, having an income of Rp 10 million while those around you earn Rp 15 million, or Rp 7.5 million while those around you earn Rp 5 million?
Research at Princeton University shows that people prefer to get a smaller income (in this example is Rp 7.5 million) as long as it is higher than those around them. This causes many people in the U.S. choose to live in Mexico, Panama or Costa Rica after retirement. They do that in order to be happier because they feel richer than those around him. The key to happiness and life satisfaction lies inward, which is enjoying whatever we have with gratitude. We cannot be satisfied if desires are always oriented to the outside.
Becoming like Cipto Junaedy is fine, but make sure it’s not ego-based intention.
Source: http://swa.co.id/column/rumus-kepuasan-hidup