Creating your own company, having a better job, a bigger house, a better car or a vacation are some of the purposes you possibly have for your life.
Although we usually believe that the above resolutions can help us feel happier, a study from the University of British Columbia found a real source of happiness. 4,600 people answered different questions about how they spend their time and money during a typical day of their lives.
The results showed that people feel happier when they have more free time to do what they like and not when they get more money.
People feel happier when they have more free time to do what they like and not when they get more money. Click To Tweet
In this way, when you give more importance to the time you earn, for example on your daily commute to work or the time you share with your family and friends, than by generating more money to buy something new, there is a true feeling of well-being.
“There must be a change in the way we think,” says Ashely Whillans, a researcher at the University of British Columbia: “People really need to think more about how they make and spend their money and time.”
The study found that once we have enough income to meet our basic needs, getting more money has little to do with a true and lasting sense of happiness in our lives.
Having a new car or any other material good generates momentary well-being but does not create a feeling of real satisfaction in the long term. On the contrary, if you manage to prioritize your time with your family or for the activities that you like the most, it is expected that you will achieve a stable feeling of well-being and happiness.
How to get the key to happiness?
Simply understanding that it is important to sacrifice money in exchange for free time to do what makes us truly happy. It seems then that the key to happiness is to change the mentality about accumulating wealth as a true source of well-being.
You must give more value to time to socialize and share with other people, to take the trip you have always wanted, to give yourself the opportunity to meet someone and even better to start the business project that you have thought about so much and have postponed.
See also: 4 tips to achieve the perfect day
No matter what your plan is, according to the study, the big decisions in our lives usually require a sacrifice of time or money that we often do not consciously analyze. Then having free time becomes a real source of happiness.
How much of your time are you sacrificing to get this new car or the latest iPhone? If you want to start a new business, this will always demand a good amount of your time, in which you can waste making money to buy things that we don’t really need, so you must be clear about your long-term goal, your well-being and happiness.
And remember, if you are really interested in creating your own business, you can read our book “How to create a company while working: Discover how to manage your time, manage your money and motivate yourself while creating a company and working for another” , where you will find all the information you need to found your own company, without having to leave your job.
