No, the ultimate secret to happiness is not something like finding the fountain of youth, if there is such a thing to start off with. There isn’t, for even if someone is forever commended for “not looking their age,” chances are they spend a lot of time internalising that and trying to consolidate on it further and this is something which affects the ladies more than it does us the gents.

The ultimate secret to success isn’t extreme wealth either and you can turn around and say, “but Ben, surely you’re not as wealthy as the likes of those tycoons who rank atop the Forbes Rich List, so how can you legitimately lay claim to know that wealth does not bring happiness?”

I did not say wealth does not bring happiness… What I said was wealth is not the ultimate secret to happiness, along with feigning to have discovered the fountain of youth…

So what then is the ultimate secret to happiness and why did I lead with the dismissal of the fountain of youth and immeasurable wealth as two discussion points which are definitely NOT the ultimate secret to happiness?

The ultimate secret to happiness lies in youth and wealth as clues

As the human race, we seem to have done a great job of commoditising pretty much everything on this planet, which is otherwise made available to us for free, by Mother Nature. Consequently, the toil with which many of us are made to work for the money which we call our living makes us associate money and wealth with a certain amount of value that is nowhere near its true value.

For example, why is it that one person can wake up and work at a leisurely pace and yet they still earn four times as much money as another person who works at least twice as hard? If value was proportionate to the amount of time and effort we put into the amount of money we make, more of us would realise that we currently work way too hard for way too little in return.

This brings the discussion back to how wealth is often wrongly associated with making a key to happiness, if not the ultimate secret to happiness outright. I think I’ll just bring the fountain of youth into the mix as well, while I’m at it. People say youth is lost on the young for a reason. People spend their prime years waiting for happiness to come instead of actively searching for it. Teenagers and young adults who join a ministry for youth, for example, have been found to be much happier and more content than their peers who drift about without any sense of belonging. Wealth is hardly important in this scenario.

It’s as simple as this: picture yourself waking up one day and as a result of some heroic act that made you famous the world over, you were given the status of being completely financially free. In other words, you don’t have to pay anything to do or access whatever it is you want. Additionally to that, picture yourself in perfect health, with the energy levels of a pre-teen.

What is it that you would dedicate your life to doing under those circumstances? The answer which comes to mind or the set of answers which come to mind – that is where the ultimate secret to your happiness lies!

Pursue those things that you’d do if the above painted scenario was your realty and you’ll be happy.