If at this particular time in your life the accumulation of wealth is high on your priority list and you are spending the better part of your waking hours pursuing the almighty dollar, then perhaps you will be interested in a study that recently came out of the University of London. They managed to create the financial equivalents for life's pains and pleasures. For example, the study has attached an improvement in health from "very poor" to "excellent" provides as much happiness as an extra $631,000.00 a year. By contrast, a decline in health from "excellent" to "poor" has a psychic cost of $480,000.00 in financial losses.
In terms of interpersonal relationships, increasing time with family and friends to "most days" feels like getting a $179,000.00 raise, talking to your neighbours frequently is worth the equivalent of approximately $79,000.00.
The study found too that an individual who sees friends or relatives less than once a month to never would require an additional $133,000.00 annually to be just as satisfied as someone who sees friends or relatives on most days.
The point that I am trying to make here with the help of this unique study, is that the accumulation of wealth and the joy of material possessions doesn't last as long as the feeling you get from spending quality time with your family and friends, and the University of London's research seems to reinforce this assertion with a novel way of demonstrating it. Money buys happiness, but not a lot of it," says Powdthavee, a social economist at the universities Institute of Education. And I will take that one step further and suggest that what happiness money does buy is short lived.
The implications to ones health should be readily apparent in this discussion. A life led for too long without balance ultimately results in ill-health or "dis-ease," costing close to the equivalent of $500,000.00. Being able to balance ones time in ways that nurture the four dimensions of self; emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual, is worth more than $600,000.00.
One disturbing finding in this study was that if given a choice between more time with family or friends, or its six figure psychic equivalent, most would take the money and run.
Would you?
According to professor Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University, almost all of us have affective forecasting; that is the sense that we mis-predict what would make us happier in the future.
Do you need some help in sorting through what you see as valuable to your health and happiness? As your personal coach I can help with that!
~James Ladd
MONEY, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS - To learn more about this author, visit James Ladd's Website.
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James Ladd
(Visit James's Website)
JAMES LADD B.A., C.H.R.P., C.P.I.R.
Life & Business Coach, author and speaker,
who has without a doubt been down the
"Road Less Traveled," having survived and
thrived after a double lung transplant in
August of 2003. Jim comes to this place in
his incredible life journey with a dynamic
combination of work and life experience.
Jim worked as an Organizational & Human
Resource Development Specialist for over
35 years in the private, public &
non-profit sectors and also managed a
provincial government employee assistance
program serving over 15,000 employees. He
has authored and facilitated a wide
variety of training programs covering such
diverse topics as; managing organizational
change, conflict resolution, performance
management, managing and/or coping with
stress, interviewing & counseling skills,
supervisory & management skills. His most
recent publication titled; "THE PERSONAL
TRANSFORMATION GUIDE: Raising Awareness of
Self to Slay the Dragon," is available
through his website. In the community he
became an award winning football coach
over the course of 25 years (Coach of the
Year 3M of Canada, Coach of the Year,
Developmental Category, Coaches Assoc. of
Manitoba
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