Here's my thesis: Happiness is the product of achievement through personal effort.
Our culture of Entitlement is actually depriving people of the chance to be happy. An entitlement mentality leads to Jealousy, Covetousness and Envy, but not to Happiness.
One child has an ice cream cone, another does not...
Jealousy says, “I wish I had an ice cream cone, too.”
Covetousness says, “I wish I had your ice cream cone.”
Envy says, “If I can’t have an ice cream cone, then neither should you.”
But Contentment says, “I’m happy with the ice cream cone I earned.”
Happiness is earned. Promoting a sense of entitlement to what a person wants deprives him the happiness of earning it.
Still not convinced? Try this one:
Imagine Apple is releasing the iPhone 6 on Monday morning. A crowd lines up overnight to be the first to buy one for $600. If the store ran out of iPhones before everyone got to the front of the line, you could expect people to be disappointed. If, however, the store was giving away FREE iPhones, and they ran out, you could expect a riot. Why? The buyers accept personal responsibility: “I should have gotten here earlier.” But the others think they were entitled to a free phone and it is someone else’s fault for denying them one.
Let’s give people a hand up, to achieve happiness, rather than a hand out.
(Credit to Dennis Prager for this concept)
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