The Difference Between Being Happy And Being Happier Than Someone Else

It’s been said over and over and over, but we still have trouble understanding the fact that happiness comes from within. It’s not something that comes when you hit a certain level in life in terms of your career or your salary or your love life. It’s an internal state of being that only you have control over.

Many people confuse being happy with being happier or better off than someone else, but that is never the case. That “good” feeling you get when you think your life is better than someone else’s isn’t happiness. It’s a brief, fleeting emotion that will satisfy you for only the smallest amount of time. After that, you’re back to analyzing your life and having no idea what to feel about it until another person comes along that you can compare yourself to. 

Your happiness is never going to come from relating your life to that of someone else. You have to slowly but surely build it up inside of yourself. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s still an attainable goal. Happiness is there. You just have to learn how to acknowledge it properly. 

It doesn’t mean that your life is always going to be easy or carefree. In fact, the majority of your life will be spent encountering obstacles and dealing with conflict. But it’s possible to still be happy during these times, because it all comes from your perspective and your attitude. 

You’re going to have bad days and bad weeks. Even bad months or bad years. It’s okay to feel weak and vulnerable. It’s okay to need encouragement. The point is that you have to keep going and keep fighting without turning yourself into a victim. Everyone is going through something and fighting against hardship. But if you can learn to find things to be grateful for along the way, you can learn to pull happiness out of the deepest corners of yourself. 

The happiest people in the world don’t have more money than you or more success or better looks or a better job. They aren’t happier than you because of their circumstances. They’re happy because they’ve learned to maintain a steady and consistent state of optimism and thankfulness. They appreciate everything good that happens to them. But, more importantly, they deal with the hardships that come their way. They acknowledge that life isn’t fair and that sometimes, other people may have it a lot easier than them. But they keep fighting, and they never stop to feel bad for themselves. They tell themselves to do everything in their power to change what they can, and they learn to accept the things that they can’t change. 

In a world where we know what everyone is doing all the time, it’s hard not to compare yourself to others. You’re going to slip sometimes, but you must try and do everything in your power to avoid comparing your life to that of someone else. Because that’s not the way to measure your happiness. 

Every single person in this world has had a unique life that no one else in the history of the world has experienced in the exact same way. You cannot measure how happy and content you are based on a life of someone else that you have not lived. 

Learn to be grateful, and appreciate even the smallest, tiniest little thing that comes your way. If you do that, you’ll be too busy being thankful to be watching what everyone else is doing. And happiness will follow. Not in the way you expect. But it will come.