It’s quite well known and research proves that lottery winners really are less happy… and that people get more satisfaction earning their cash.
But have you ever wondered why those who get rich without earning get less satisfaction from their cash than those who earn it?
It seems that clues are found in the pleasure center in people’s 
brains… and it turns out that when you work for what you earn it’s far more important to your brain. They can tell how the brain wires more for the challenge of meaningful work... than for rewards of free gifts ... by observing activity in pleasure centers in the brain that lights up when a person plays and that fails to activate when money is given to a person.
My question is… How can more people we work with find more pleasure from the work they do to earn a living? It seems to me that if we could turn around the increasing job dissatisfaction trends … we’d also lower the wannabes who think that a windfall prize would increase their happiness. What do you think?
Money does not make you happy, it just allows you to be miserable in comfort. Perhaps when we learn to value ourselves and others, and we appreciate what we already have, instead of always wishing for more, we might lose our preoccupation with money. Would we be happier if we learnt to live in the "now', instead of constantly looking to the future?
Posted by: Dr Olga Redmond-Stokes | August 13, 2006 3:05 PM | Permalink to Comment