Satisfaction
Design by Ethan O’Leary
You have just finished your last exam of the period. Maybe you have studied like a fool for the last couple of weeks and look forward to those three days of well- deserved nothingness, or perhaps you have not studied at all since it makes you feel anxious simply thinking about the exam and then hope for the best when the day comes. However you manage your studying time, you probably imagine those days coming after the exam as an oasis where all of your problems will be gone and where you will have time to do what you really enjoy in life. But as soon as the exam is finished, something else pops up in your mind. Maybe it’s the job application that you need to send in, that weird lump on your stomach that you have to look up or that old friend that you have not met in ages and you should probably get in touch with again. Why is it that we always strive for these sweet moments of satisfaction after a period of stress, but still stand surprised by the fact that we are not as content as we thought we would be, every single time?
To strive for a greater situation than the one you are currently in is one of mankind's most distinct attributes; in Sweden one very common expression is “mycket vill ha mer”, which roughly translates to “the one who has a lot wants more”. No matter how satisfied you are with your situation, we always want to become even more comfortable. One could argue that this feature of humans is only positive, resulting in this dreamy capitalistic utopia we all share together. But zooming in on an individual level, this constant strive for something better is arguably not the most convenient feeling there is. Would it not be nice to just sit down and not care about what you could have, but instead be satisfied with what there is? This text is not meant to be the usual critique of the economic system with ever increasing productivity and growth, but instead focus on how we as individuals can get another perspective on ourselves using this knowledge about how we work, and perhaps be able to cool ourselves down in stressful and demanding situations.
By looking at available data and using a very unscientific observation method (quickly scanning), there is a clear relationship between GDP/Capita and Life Satisfaction, but it is also obvious that general happiness has increased in most countries during the last 50 years. You could argue that this contradicts the whole point of this article, and that people actually are starting to feel more satisfied. But as I said earlier, the point is not to do some analysis of macrotrends in society, but to understand the role that satisfaction plays in your life to your advantage. It is this constant strive to always feel better that makes us do so over the years, because the quality of our lives has significantly improved over the last 200 years due to us never being able to just sit down and relax. We always strive for something greater, no matter if we want it or not.
Knowing that you will probably never feel perfectly satisfied may feel a bit daunting and scary, but I personally feel as if accepting this can make it easier to handle. Being able to understand why you feel dissatisfied with yourself and your current situation can help you to zoom out of your own little bubble and see the broader picture instead. Taking the typical example of not getting the grade you want or failing an exam, that is very unlikely to affect your life in any meaningful way, but it can still be difficult to understand when it is you that have gotten that bad grade. But at the same time, it wouldn’t be very advantageous to us as a species if our reaction after a personal failure would be “Well, that did not matter at all”. You probably will not be able to change millions of years of evolutionary progress, and will still continue to feel dissatisfied with yourself. But knowing that your own brain does not always give you the best perspective on yourself and your accomplishment, may just be enough to help you in those toughest moments.