Sacrificing exercise and gym time? Research tells you that three things bring more happiness than wealth. When converted to money, the happiness that comes from regular exercise is like a 40 percent raise in salary.
If you are an employee, your workday and salary are basically set by your employer. You can work harder, but it won’t increase your income in the short term.
If you are an entrepreneur, you have more time to spend on your own. Many people devote more time and energy to the pursuit of success and wealth.
What many people forget in the pursuit is that the most fundamental purpose of our desire for success and wealth is to increase happiness and create self-actualization.
But in fact, wealth brings happiness has its limits, and many studies have confirmed that within a certain range, the more money you have, the happier you are. But once a certain range is exceeded, the relationship between money and happiness is no longer linearly positive.
Research also confirms that the following three things bring more happiness than money.
1. Good relations
We know that most Latinos are materially inferior to Americans and Canadians. But an international survey shows that economic conditions are not linked to happiness, and many Latinos are actually happier.
Why?
The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, explains that the answer lies in “relationships. Latin American cultures place more emphasis on being with the people they love, sometimes willing to put aside their own hobbies in favor of shared happiness.
This may not sound very appealing to individualistic Americans, but Latin Americans are comfortable with interpersonal connections.
It certainly doesn’t mean you have to move to Latin America or adopt a “Latin American mentality”. The point of this study is to emphasize that nourishing your relationships can bring happiness beyond money
2. Exercise
Hard-working people often trade their physical fitness for the realization of their dreams or the accumulation of bank deposits. This may seem inevitable for people in the early stages of entrepreneurship. But a Yale University study found that if you want to give up exercise and gym time to work on your career, you really have to think twice.
The study, published in the journal “The Lancet”, surveyed 1.2 million Americans found that the average person who exercises regularly has 35 days a year in an unattractive mood, probably due to stress, depression, etc. But people who do not exercise, the year in a year, the mood is not beautiful. But people who do not exercise, there are 53 days in a year to feel gloomy, unhappy.
More interestingly, since we are talking about the relationship between wealth and happiness, the study also calculated that the happiness of regular exercisers is equivalent to an increase in annual salary of $25,000. In terms of median personal income in the United States, this is equivalent to a 43% increase in salary.
3. Shorten commuting time
In order to afford a more spacious house, many people choose to move to the suburbs, thus lengthening their commute. But a British study found that for every 20-minute increase in commuting time, your happiness decreases a little.
Of course lifestyle choices are subjective, and this study just wants to remind you that, scientifically speaking, you might want to think about how to make balanced trade-offs.
It’s easy to pursue the accumulation of wealth with abandon, believing that this will lead to greater success and happiness, while losing out on the more important things that can actually bring greater happiness in the process.
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