Image by DavidDMuir via Flickr

Would you be happy if you earned $75,000 per year? Yes, you would, according to a Wall Street Journal article at the time that cited a Gallup survey of Americans.

I’ve made a lot less money than that, and now, thankfully, I earn more. The article made me think for a while about when I was more or less happy… with more or less?

My short answer is: having more does not stink. Money does give you options. Typically, the more money you have, the more options you have. Money can’t buy you friends, character or love. However, aviation fuel and airplane rentals are frightfully expensive, and I am very happy when I am about 4,500 feet above my troubles. Happiness does take more than money. Happiness may also mean having less of some other stuff.

In the global scope of my life, I am more or less satisfied and happy. I am certainly more blessed than I deserve to be and less grateful than I should be.

As I try to continue to round off the rough edges of my life, I wondered: what do I want more of, and what do I want less of? Here are my lists:

More

1. Good times with my wife and children. Hey, we are making memories here. To be remembered, you’ve got to be in the picture.
2. Close friends. You can’t have enough of those interesting people. Real people who just hang out with you and laugh, cry, eat your food, fill the right seat of your Cessna, drag you to events you’d rather not attend and split the last glass of wine with you. Sometimes my online friends tap my time and relationship energy, and I don’t have much left to call up my flesh and blood friends. Online friends are OK, but they are nothing like the real, messy, ask-you-to-help-them-move kind of friends.
3. More great music. Too much music is mindless, meaningless, background, soundtrack junk. I want to listen to more music that moves my soul. The kind of tunes that make me want to make my wife a playlist.
4. Fabulous food. Whoever put the words fast and food together deserves whatever they have coming to them. Food is a most magnificent gift and we should all savor fantastic food as if it were our last meal every time. There are no guarantees that it is not and I have no desire to be buried with a half-digested insta-burger in my belly.
5. Good things to look forward to. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as you are looking forward to it.
6. Interesting things to do at work. I do get fired up when I’m given a meaningful and interesting project to do at work. I love to use my strengths!
7. Satisfaction. I want to be more satisfied with all the blessings and for the ability to share many of them with others.
8. Quality time with God. I could listen more and talk less, more often. (I’m really not comfortable having this last on my list of more.)

LESS

1. Selfishness. It’s not all about me.
2. Frustration. It’s not all about what I want.
3. Fear. It’s probably not going to be as bad as I think it might be.
4. Weight. It’s all about moderation.
5. Wasted time. It’s a one-shot deal, this thing we call life.
6. Procrastination. It’s something I’ve been meaning to address.
7. Hate in the world. Can’t we all just get along?
8. Stuff. It’s kind of getting in the way.

Those are more or less my lists.

What’s on your more or less lists? What would it take for you to make your lists your life? Do you think you would be more or less happy?