Materialism Won't Lead You To Happiness. Here's Why!

Are you a materialistic person? Do you care about things such as money, luxury items, car, property, etc?

A materialistic person is someone who tends to fall in love with their material possessions, especially luxury goods and wealth, and equates them to happiness and fulfillment. This is remarkably so when the owning of the possessions is motivated by emotional reasons rather than functional reasons.

If you belong to this category, maybe you need to reconsider; do you really need all of these materials to become happy? Perhaps, when you're so busy buying new things, you miss the chance to achieve real happiness!

Here are three fundamental reasons why you shouldn't be materialistic:

1) Materials are just fake symbols of happiness.

If you are deeply lost into our desires toward material possessions, you will find we have come to hold many false beliefs about these possessions. We look upon them as connections to our idealized lives, helping to increase our happiness, to improve our satisfaction of life, to increase our self-esteem, to boost our confidence, to make us feel more worthy, to feel more attractive, etc. We see objects as tools that will help us improve our quality and experience of life. It seems our problems will no longer be around or will be reduced considerably if we are to have these material possessions. Material possessions have evolved into our holy grail and represent symbols of hope, happiness and joy. However, these symbols are no more than just artificial creations by people.

2) Materials don't last forever.

The fancy new whatever you just bought isn’t going to last you your entire lifetime. They have to crap out on you sooner than later. However, if you invest your money into travelling or even camping, you’ll find that it’s a lot more rewarding in the grand scheme of things. Not only will you have things that can help you adventure forth in life, but you will have a variety of stories to tell your friends and family that will make them want to go on your next big adventure.

3) Materials distract you from what really matters.

The pursuit of stuff is a distraction from the important thing: the pursuit of your goals. It can be hard to stay interested in your goals when success requires patience (the opposite of the instant gratification materialism provides). But don’t you think achieving a goal meaningful to you will make you happier than a bunch of stuff that leaves you feeling empty before you know it?

How to change

Getting rid of materialism doesn’t mean forsaking all your possessions. Ridding yourself of everything you own would only prove you are still too preoccupied with possessions themselves. Someone who has developed a healthy inner world would see possessions as neutral. This shift is more about attitude than specific actions.

You need to understand that the things you own don't define who you really are. The problem is that you view things as possessions in the first place. Ownership is just a societal construct to keep order, it doesn’t have any deeper meaning. Separate your identity from the things you own.

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