What are your Minimum Requirements for Happiness?

December 19th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Is Happiness elusive?

Are some people genetically predisposed to be happy while others will never find happiness?

What really make you happy?

A few years I visited a small town near Chicago.

Most of my Silicon Valley friends told me that

It would be freezing in the winter.
It’d be boring. After all, it’s the Midwest.
I will miss the actions in the Silicon Valley.

Basically, they thought I’d be miserable.

I ended up living in this town for a couple of years. Let me tell you:

I didn’t mind the cold weather at all. I loved the distinct four seasons. A snowy, white Christmas is absolutely beautiful.
Chicago is a great city with many things to do. The restaurants are amazing. Chicago is easily one of my favorite cities.
I didn’t miss the actions in the Silicon Valley. It’s really interesting to meet and talk to people who work in different industries such as consumer package goods, traditional manufacturing, or even agricultural. It seems that everyone I know in the Silicon Valley was working on some codes to take over the world and make a lot of money.

I also told friends that I only need three things to be happy (that I call the "Minimum Happiness Requirements”) when I move to a new place:

a good coffee shop
a nice book store
a reliable, fast internet connection that lets me read, write and share

I guess I can live in many places in the world and still be happy. 🙂 But, as you see, my three minimum happiness requirements have nothing to do with where I live, how big my house is, what kind of car I drive, what brand of clothe I wear, etc. They’re pretty simple requirements.

I think having a set of simple requirements make one’s life more flexible, and less dependent on external material success.