The Price of Happiness
People all around the world work their hardest to ensure that they have a happy life for them and their families. Happiness as we know cannot be bought with money, but Ben L. Ashcraft states that everything in life comes with a price tag, including happiness, and through our choices we select the price we are willing to pay. Ashcraft refers to a quote by James E. Fraust who stated “If you’re not willing to pay the price of success, you will pay the price of failure.”
Ashcraft says that being successful will lead to a happy life, although success has an up-front fee where not all beings are willing to pay, as opposed to failure where you are allowed a grace period before you are required to begin paying. He suggests developing a “long-term vision” in which people may see the result of their actions down the road. So does happiness have a price? it does, the price is the choices we make in our lives, the choice to travel the road of success of failure.
Happiness cannot be bought with money, as cliche as it sounds it is absolutely true. The price of happiness can be paid by the choices we make in life. People always state that we pay the price of our mistakes , but we also pay the price of happiness. Ashcraft writes that being responsible, admitting to mistakes, apologizing, getting an education, telling the truth, making changes, repairing relationships, etc… are the cost of success. As simple and easy as they sound they might be truly difficult in some situations.
For example, an employee in a company makes an unintentional error at his job that leads to a chain of mistakes throughout the place of work which causes major commotion and confusion. That employee, although being terrified of his mistake, admits the fault he has done, takes responsibility and becomes determined in fixing his blunder. By that difficult choice, he has shown that he can be a responsible and dependable being, which can be a major positive feature to his future in that company.
However, most people will not own up to their mistakes which may begin their travel on the road of failure. Suppose that employee does not take responsibility of his error but instead be dishonest about the situation and inflict the damage he has done upon another worker where he aims to be clear out of any trouble, which at the time may have been an easier choice. Ashcraft calls that a grace period before you are required to begin paying, in this case paying for his mistakes.
It is known that no mistake goes unpunished, when the company figures out that the employee responsible was deceitful and corrupt, they take severe actions toward him. Not only did he lose his job, but he lost his credibility and trust between his colleagues and other companies who have heard of his name and his procedures, thus making it tougher for him to find another job in his area of expertise. Ben L. Ashcraft suggests that “long-term vision” can be of magnificent help to avoid failure, which in my opinion can be a great benefit in our lives.
He compares it to driving on a windy dark road with poor headlights. You could miss a curve or crash. Long-Term is like turning on the bright light and seeing what the results of your actions might be “down the road”. Although the price of success may be rather difficult in the beginning, or a certain amount or pressure may come with it, but in the long-term it will decrease tremendously and become easier to pay.
Not so the price of failure, for it may stack up to enormous amounts, that will cause grief and despair in your life and those around you. There is no way to escape paying the price of your actions. Take that young man who took responsibility for his slip-up, he was clearly looking forward towards the future for he knew if he was untruthful that would be a vast hit to his career which may cause a great amount of unrest and instability in his life. Indeed there is a price to happiness, every choice we make whether good or bad will affect it.
As hard as paying up-front for success may be, we must always accomplish it or try our best to, for in the long-term we will reap the goodness out of that choice. On the other hand, we may have the option of taking a different path that may lead to failure. That path may be trouble-free and uncomplicated at first, but the problems will catch up to us, those we thought we were liberated from, and they will ruin our lives. We have the ability to decide what the price of our happiness is, how abundantly present it may be in our lives or the opposite. Choose wisely.
