Do you prefer your life to be...?

Question

1) a series of small happy events that never go beyond that or
2) a series of stressful, unhappy events crowned by few moments of extreme happiness.
I'll illustrate my question with an example: Would you prefer to go away every weekend in your own country but never a long holiday abroad or would you stay home every weekend to save up and have a month away in your dream holiday resort? A little long but I think I made my point

Answer 1

It's the little daily moments of joy that bring us happiness, much more than the big things. Also.... a trip brings memories which we enjoy forever, more than a fancy car sitting in the driveway, which only lasts for a while ......or any material thing. People think why waste money on something that will END [a trip i.e.] when a material thing lasts longer...... it DOESN'T.

Answer 2

Thing is, happiness doesn't work this way.

You can plan and try for "the big happy" but happiness doesn't come, necessarily. (In fact, the more you try to force it, the less likely it is.)

Whereas, extreme happiness can come, all by itself, in ordinary situations.

I also have a bit of a problem with your example, as a resort would be my idea of a nightmare, as is the process of travelling, itself. Whereas quiet times in a nice, easy-to-get to place appeals to me strongly. (Is there a piano and lots of sheet music there? Then I'm in HEAVEN!)

For me, if I understand what you're getting at, I HATE stress, so would prefer avoiding it altogether (but, of course, life doesn't work like that, either).

It's largely a matter of temperment -- some people like the wild fluctuations; others like being on the even keel. Current best thinking is we get this from the same place we get the color of our eyes.

Toward the end of the movie Parenthood, I think people who hate the roller coaster were given short shrift. The extreme people would have us believe they are somehow superior, but, as a roller-coaster hater, I think those folks are nuts.

But, really, they're both just ways of being; we don't pick our temperment. They both have advantages and disadvantages.

I wonder if another way to get at your question would be: would you rather have a job at which you consistently do a pretty good job and know what you're doing, or would you rather have a job were you often failed, but also wildly succeded at times?

I HATE being incompetent. Although I don't mind a job where there's some learning, I really don't want to always be, as they say, "challenged" every second. I love the feeling of doing something I'm good at, and doing it well.

Even if it isn't particularly splashy.

Answer 3

i don't like life because it really is now. i'm only 23, yet obviously the commercial equipment became better suited. Now it really is undesirable. i'm undesirable. i'm determining of money. it really is difficult to stumble on a job. Materialism has encapsulated united statesa.. No. No. i do no longer choose life the way it really is now. we do not have any more some thing to furnish the different international places. we are 10 trillion money in debt. Such funds does no longer exist in this earth. we are borrowing better to assist pay for our debt. What got here about to paying with funds truly of playing cards? we do not take debt heavily. human beings purchase ipods, iphones, cell telephones, and then whinge about being undesirable. education is diverse, because now the youngsters are diverse, and that i'm reading to be a instructor. My fifth grade classification became no longer some thing like fifth graders at the instantaneous are contained in the accepted public faculties. We sat at our desks and listened. We did no longer could flow lots. issues were a lot less dumbed down. How do we predict a lot and yet assume so little together?

Answer 4

I tend to find myself wandering around in both places from time to time. Expressing a preference would be not only inaccurate to reality, but also impossible to consider. I find life to be more fulfilling, for my personal tastes, when it's an insane mixture of the drab, the stress, the joy & the pain.
In light of your example, this is how it would go for me: I would save up little by little to go abroad, but in the mean time, I would also be taking small vacations around my own country. It will take longer to achieve your "Option 2" example, but it would certainly happen, and in the mean time, I can enjoy "Option 1." Thought provoking question...

Answer 5

I would rather dream big, live big! I would rather taste ecstacy briefly, even if it means dealing with stress & sorrow in the meantime than to just have a lifetime of contentment without ever experiencing more. I went to Europe once in my life & can't afford to travel anymore. I saw all the places I dreamed about. In one month I saw England, France, Italy, Switzerland & Germany. It was sad to come back to my mundane life after that but I will always have the memories (& pictures). It was worth it!

Answer 6

I'll skip the stressful, unhappy events, thanks. Of course, it's only a rhetorical question, but why not choose a string of small happy events over outright misery? Happiness is happiness, after all, and be easily found in the small and common aspects of life.

Answer 7

either one would be preferable to what I have now--a series of stressful, unhappy events crowned by a few very brief moments of not-so-bad

Answer 8

I'll take the second choice any day. Extreme happiness would be worth a little stress.

Answer 9

If you didn't have a little stress and unhappiness, how could you appreciate the happiness? What is rarest is most treasured.

Answer 10

No mountains without valleys - I'l take Door Number 2, please.
(In fact, I already have.)