Happiness
NO THING can make you happy
By Kirk Wilkinson
Apr 21, 2008

No ‘thing’ can Make you Happy

Nothing will make you happy. Happiness comes from the inside. Actually, it is better said that no thing can make you happy. Don’t live the fantasy thinking that your next job, your next promotion, a bigger house, car, or some other material thing can make you happy. It becomes a never-ending pursuit. Once you achieve what you think can make you happy, you may feel fleeting euphoria but not lasting happiness. There have been many studies on this very topic such as the landmark study in 1977 by psychologist Phillip Brickman. He compared lottery winners to quadriplegics to determine which group was happier or had a higher quality of life. At first blush, you would readily think that someone who has millions of dollars and can buy anything they want would find great happiness. The study reported that those people who had lost the use of limbs or even their entire body from the neck down claimed they had a higher quality of life than they did before they were paralyzed. The lottery winners reported a state of excitement and euphoria that soon ended, and their quality of life actually deteriorated. Some of the lottery winners even declared bankruptcy or fell into addictions. No thing can bring you happiness. You become happy from the inside out.

If you are like me, your intellect knows that material things don’t make you happy. But my actions didn’t follow what I knew intellectually and I found myself expecting to be happy every time something good happened to me. Sure, I was happy for a while, but it didn’t’ last. Sometimes it was more a matter of trying to influence and convince God to grant me happiness by creating favorable circumstances. But circumstances are on the outside, not on the inside. Happiness is not dependant on your circumstances, especially ones that you try to create or influence. Regardless of your situation, you can be happy. There are so many people around us who have real and difficult problems who are content and happy, and yet there are so many who are not. The difference is not in the circumstances but what is on the inside.

No thing can make you happy. Happiness is living in a way that brings peace and contentment into your life regardless of the circumstances. I have met many successful yet miserable people. People who you would consider successful in every way but who claim they are empty inside. Perhaps you find yourself in that category—successful but unfulfilled, successful but not happy. I was once there! I did not change my job, find a new wife, or move to a different city to be happy. I found it inside of me, and you can find it inside of you!