Quality of life, standard of living and happiness.
The definition of success is often weighed by our accomplishments. The accomplishment is derived from our job title, income, or the impact we create in the world. This interpretation of success defines the understanding of "the quality of life" and "the standard of living". We think moving fast is good because of the scarcity of time, but what it undermines is that it compromises being thoughtful and living in the present. We are so addicted to fast pace that we are listening to REPLY instead of understanding what the other person wants to convey. Being genuinely interested in others has vanished to a great degree. In fact, we are interested in someone because of a purpose or an objective.
One can say, I have achieved a dollar profit by creating an impactful company. However, what is often overlooked or left undocumented is the emptiness of that person's feelings.
- Is this wealth creating a hollow relationship?
- Or destroying relationships?
- What good is that impact when a person has no healthy relationships? Or are the relationships on face value?
- What good is in that impact, that makes us famous in the entire world, but leaves us alone in our personal lives? Can we genuinely claim that people close to us really know us within?
A wealth that sucks so much time that we barely have contact numbers of our extended family. We can say, this guy has increased his standard of living through wealth, but is unable to build a quality of life. He has the power to purchase everything he desires, but fails to build bonds with his family members. The emptiness within his children is also unknown, and the fast pace has also spoiled us to understand the need for empathy.
Redefining success.
We are racing to replace humans with AI. And yet we constantly undermine the value of every single individual. We need to rethink the definition of success and how we can prevent seeing wealthy people as successful idols. A relationship backed by agreement is purely the absence of a deep bond and a purpose in life.
Our relationship shouldn’t be built on purpose, instead, the relationship in itself should be the purpose.
- Salman Asif Siddique
The thirst for happiness is found in everyone. Nobody will claim that they don’t want to be happy. But the driving force behind the success is misplaced. Collecting wealth into the house will only fill the house with materialism. Instead, how beautiful it is if everyone within the house lives with contentment, a genuine smile, and creates an environment of peaceful satisfaction.
Self-obsession is a slow poison.
Quality of life has a direct correlation with the quality of relationships we build. Nowadays, selfishness is on the rise, undermining the importance of sacrificing and prioritising the value of relationships over petty desire. Me-me-me has created an atmosphere of self-worth so much that we often overlook the need to preserve the self-esteem of others. Generosity is no longer seen as a virtue; instead, we tend to dismiss the need for generosity in the first place. The value of happiness is simple and easy. We should enjoy what we have instead of complaining about what we can’t get. Depression is rising in every age because we aren’t comfortable in our skin. We see ads that are close to perfect, dressed in attractive clothes, etc. What this trigger is, the emptiness of what we don’t have. Consumerism that dictates what we should buy has spoiled us to a degree that we no longer feel the need to control our desires and temptations. Instead, fulfilling our desire is seen as part of happiness, but no one can guarantee whether this desire will truly make us happy or if it is just giving a temporary dopamine satisfaction.
Standard of living vs quality of life.
The meaning of quality of life and standard of living is widely standardised, so that everyone is rushing to be the first in this race. We should ask ourselves why we feel the need to participate in this race in the first place. If we see the divorce statistics, then it is clear that the majority of marriages end within 8 years, and this is being glorified in the name of “what you want in life”. Well, we must ask ourselves, how do those couples feel on the first day of a relationship that has vanished as time passes? How do we fail to keep a healthy bond as we grow old? It has become a myth nowadays to commit to each other for life and death. Sacrificing, prioritising relationships, and spending quality time have either faded or been seen as outdated virtues for modern times. The sad reality is, very few feel accountable to share the experience of their wrong choices. The success story only covers the admiring influential part, and “what it has cost” is often left unspoken.