I have just read the commentary article on "The hard reality (and choices) about achieving happiness in Singapore" on Yahoo Singapore http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/hard-reality-choices-achieving-happiness-singapore-055109480.html and fully agree with the writer that the state of happiness of any individual depends very much on his/her own perceptions and expectations in life.
For a person who is easily contented with what he/she has like the writer's grandmother, happiness can be attained “As long as there is enough food to eat and a roof over my head! I don’t need a lot of money to be happy, how much more can I eat?” Indeed, in the process of building a good life for ourselves in modern times, one's pursuit of wealth has given us a never-ending list of 'wants' which one may take a life-time to achieve (if one ever complete the list in one's lifetime).
The writer is right to point out that "If you want to be happy -- you have to know what can make you happy. Many of us run around in circles looking for something but not knowing what it is." As such, it is of paramount importance for one to identify his/her purpose in life and what he/she wants to achieve out of life. One can only proceed to define happiness in his own context after he had defined his own life objectives and then proceed to work towards it, building his own destiny.
To me, Perception is a peculiar word as one incident can have thousands of different perceptions by different people and there are no absolute right or wrong connotations to each one of them. Perhaps, that is also the 'beauty' of perception as it allows individuals to define their own happiness and meanings in life.
Expectations on the other hand, can be affected by many environmental and societal factors around us. Despite having enough to eat everyday, one can easily raise his/her expectations on the food one consume as one moves up the social ladder and failing to achieve the level purported by society at large would have a direct impact on the level of happiness one can attain in this process. Similarly, the living conditions, the type of housing we currently and that which we aspire to have and the many other luxurious pursuits can all bring our expectations higher and higher with no recourse to one's ability to achieve them. When one reaches that stage, unhappiness will set in and other conditions like depression, feeling of rejection will all step forward to befriend you.
In conclusion, I felt that for any one of us to "capture" our own happiness quotient, we must keep a close check on our perceptions and expectations in every stage of our life and make appropriate and realistic adjustments to them. Only then can we maintain our mind and body in the state of 'happiness' we desire.
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