How Happy Are You With Your Life?

I recently come to know that Singapore has been ranked 22nd happiest country on earth by worldhappiness.report. You can steal a quick glance over here.

OMG! In case you haven't yet noticed, there are a few 3rd world countries that are ranked higher than Singapore.

Why are the people at these countries happier than us when we have better housing, jobs, living standards and so on...?

Being a true blue Singaporean, it did not take me too long to know why.

Expectations

In my opinion, expectations and stresses are the top 2 factors that have been constantly deflating my happiness level.

Just how many times have we been living under the expectation of people in and around our life?

I know I have. There are so many expectations we have to fulfill in life - school, marriage, family, social life, work place and list goes on...

Stresses

While I do understand there are both healthy and unhealthy stresses, it does not matter to me as stresses are what causes us to become unhappy with our life.

Have you have ever notice why children are ever so happy and carefree? I am sure people with half a brain would know the answer too...

Children, by and large, only have school and exam stresses to handle while we have a long list of other stresses to handle:

- parenting
- work place politics
- career advancement
- family harmony
- marriage
- peer pressure among friends, family and colleagues
- financial
- traffic jams (whether you are driving or not)
- health problems

What I listed above are probably only the tip of the iceberg compared to the longer list more stressful people may have.

Why Are People in the 3rd World Countries Happier?

 I do not really have all the answers, but I am guessing that people in these countries have, in general, lower amount of expectations and stresses in their life and hence the higher level of happiness in comparison.

And obviously, I am not referring to those countries where they do not even have enough to eat or a decent shelter over their head.

Everyone has a gauge of happiness within them. I know what makes me happy and most of the time, it did not take much to experience happiness. E.g. I am always happy whenever my kiddo come rushing towards me and hug me whenever I come home.

Simple happiness does not really cost much, isn't it? What are yours? What will make you a happier person?