Is your happiness Relative or Absolute?

Finding joy beyond comparison

Imagine this: You just got a 10% raise at work. Feels great, right? But then you find out your colleague got a 20% raise. Suddenly, your happiness dips. Same raise, different feelings. Why? Because our happiness often depends on reference points—what we compare ourselves to.

This is why someone making $50K a year but surrounded by friends earning $40K may feel happier than someone making $300K among peers earning $500K. Our minds are wired to compare.

But what if we stopped measuring happiness by comparison? What if, instead of chasing "more", we focused on "enough"?

A Good Enough Life isn’t about settling—it’s about recognizing what truly matters to you, not what looks good on paper or in someone else’s life.

So on World Happiness Day, ask yourself:
Are you happy because you have enough—or because you have more than others? Are you unhappy because you don’t have enough—or because you don’t have as much as others?

Shifting from relative happiness (comparison) to absolute happiness (contentment) could be a powerful upgrade to your well-being.

What’s the one absolute happiness that you already enjoy?