[Closed] Doing well in life

Happiness
Friends
Children
Spare time and what you do in it

Those are important for me at least, won't suit everyone

Do you enjoy it? If yes then you are doing well in life.

Life should never be about work or money.

The number of guitars you own?

Not dying.

How much your 'peers' envy you?

not waking up worrying about bills

having spare time you can relax in and spend doing what you want

personal life good

being happy

I used to think having lots of money would be a nice thing...but I think the lucky people are those who have discovered what they were supposed to do.

Top musicians, chefs, artists, composers...etc. etc.

They all are doing what they are supposed to do.

Who thinks they are doing what they were supposed to do?

Being happy and not directly making others unhappy in order to pay for your happiness.

(I think that caveats it)

wors - Member
How would you define "doing well in life"?

Money?
Job?
Time?

I fail on those three.

andyl - Member
not waking up worrying about bills

having spare time you can relax in and spend doing what you want

personal life good

being happy

and these four.

Getting rather pissed of about it to be honest. This thread is depressing.

In my final year at school in 92', we did a questionnaire on a computer which would then recommend an ideal career path. Then we would get a conversation with the careers advisor who gave us the results.

Apparently I should have been a bin man or a shoe repair man.

18 years later and I'm a senior project manager at a tier 1 investment bank...my current responsibilities don't include refuse collection or shoe repair.

I think poor careers advice is why a lot of people end up unhappy in life...has careers advice improved in the last 18 years?

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

I think a lot of people are unhappy because they think they need a career and not a job. Mibbe I was lucky, but I just got a job after school then worked hard at getting better at it until another job came along, which I worked hard at, etc, etc. The only time I remember thinking about a "career" was when I turned down the chance of promotion because I had started to think that there was more to life than money and work.

Spare time is the main one as in not working yourself into the ground. Time rich and money poor.

I work with lads who think their lives revolve around work.

Work
sleep
work
sleep
go away to Turkey for a fortnight
work
sleep
and repeat.

Not for me.

Time to spend with the daughter.
Time to spend with Girlfriend.
Time to spend on the bike.

At the moment I am ticking all three.

I am in a job that doesn't pay a lot but I kind of enjoy doing so it's not all bad.

In my final year at school in 92', we did a questionnaire on a computer which would then recommend an ideal career path. Then we would get a conversation with the careers advisor who gave us the results

I did that, for me it said Forest Ranger or Librarian, I have no idea to this day how two such different options could be come up with for the same person.

In my final year at school in 92', we did a questionnaire on a computer which would then recommend an ideal career path. Then we would get a conversation with the careers advisor who gave us the results.

Apparently I should have been a bin man or a shoe repair man.

18 years later and I'm a senior project manager at a tier 1 investment bank...my current responsibilities don't include refuse collection or shoe repair.

I think poor careers advice is why a lot of people end up unhappy in life...has careers advice improved in the last 18 years?

Poor school careers advice doesn't seem to have affected you. I don't know anyone who does what their careers advisor said they should. In fact I don't even remember what I was told, it was such an insignificant event in my life.

I wonder if anyone has ever been told by a careers advisor that they should be a careers advisor?

Servicing bikes, building bikes, riding bikes, breaking bikes 😀

I love what I do in terms of my life, it's hard because of my health, but thanks to my bearing kits I get spare time, which I use to fix other peoples bikes and help out quite a few riders. Who don't have a lot of money.

Lots of bikes to work on and my friends are all great characters.

I wouldn't say my life is perfect and there are things I would like to have, but it could be so much worse and I consider it to be a simple but good life!

If anyone lives in the Edinburgh/lothians area and doeasn't have a lot of money, I would be happy to lend a hand with keeping you mobile.

😀

In my final year at school in 92', we did a questionnaire on a computer which would then recommend an ideal career path. Then we would get a conversation with the careers advisor who gave us the results.

Apparently I should have been a bin man or a shoe repair man.

I think bin man came up for everyone, it certainly did for me and I remember the various discussions in the 6th Form Common Room afterwards about what a load of rubbish (pun intended) the whole thing was. I think mine actually suggested something science-y which is what I did for a while.

Where you're living.
What you're doing.
Who you're with.

2 out of 3 should be considered a win.

Currently I get all 3 😀

Wasn't always the case though.

I think if I earnt less than £35k I would consider myself a failure.

EDIT: reference to an old thread!

I think if I earnt less than £35k I would consider myself a failure.

Do what? You can earn £35k as a teacher and they are all failures. £60k minimum or you might as well give up.

You either is or you isn't. Done both. The first is way way betterer

I think if I earnt less than £35k I would consider myself a failure.

Yeah if you're under 25. 6 figures or you're a nobody.

I'm sat on a dull conference call in a job I no longer enjoy, I've found lately that the negative effects of this have an impact on other aspects of my life. There's nothing worse than getting up in the morning and having to raise the enthusiasm to leave the house when I'd rather stay home and play with my kids!

On a brighter note I'm actively working on fixing the job issue, once that is done everything should be rosy again. The most important things to me are my family and friends, but a job you don't enjoy takes the shine off of other things.

Winding folk up online.

What if you earn less than 25k.? Is that a complete disaster.?

I think if I earnt less than £35k I would consider myself a failure.

I tend to agree, I think £35K is the "magical" figure or the "cut off point" so to speak.

Reach the £35k mark and life becomes much more pleasurable. I've found I now spend Sundays taking my much loved TVR out for a spin on the country lanes, rather than sitting at home watching Hollyoaks omnibus like most of the sub £35kers do. Hell, I can even afford to get the suspension on it tuned and serviced aswell, for £4k a pop!

I cant see how you could be classed as "doing well" if your on less than the big 35

LOL at the teacher-bashing, teh last respite of the desparate and insecure - let me guess - "if you can do, do, if you can't teach?"

What a great education system you would give us 🙄

How would you define "doing well in life"?

Freedom and something to look forward to.

What if you earn less than 25k.? Is that a complete disaster.?

You can get more than that on benefits. For that money I would have to be working as Natalie Portmans underpants to make it worthwhile.

In that case, I used to be doing well, but now I'm a failure.

Apparently I should have been a bin man or a shoe repair man.

18 years later and I'm a senior project manager at a tier 1 investment bank.

Hmm. Wonder if everyone else working in the banking sector got similar career advice? Might go some way towards explaining the current global economic situation...

I cant see how you could be classed as "doing well" if your on less than the big 35

One of my managers who has got to be on that sort of money and then some has had a couple of failed marriages, kids he doesn't see and works pretty much 24 hours a day. The bloke never switches off.

Is that doing well.?

I think if I earnt less than £35k I would consider myself a failure.

I remember that thread.

And I'm a teacher 😆

the desparate and insecure

I am loving the irony of someone who can't spell telling me what a great education I could provide. 😉

Try the app, mappiness. S'posed to try and measure the environment your in when your happy or sad. Not tried it but recommended by friends as interesting to see the results.

If you need an App to map your happiness... you are critically sad.

Having a billion quid and being healthy enough (physically and mentally) to enjoy it would be my definition, I fall a long way short. Yes I'm shallow :p

Since it was £35k 6 months(?) ago, surely we should inflate that now - say by 4% (1/2 year at 8%rpi) so that's around £36.5k - Ha, instantly more losers! 😉

Doing well in life is when you understand and appreciate that you won't always do well in life. If you can get the balance right so that there are more positives than negatives in your head then you're doing OK 8)

What I don't fully understand is where all the pressure to try and be wealthy, have a flash new car etc. comes from. I mean, most of us are pretty lucky in this day and age, we take for granted that food, running water, acommodation, medical care etc is well within everybodies reach. Why should anyone feel bad if they dont have/want the latest tech gadget, car the most expensive clothes etc?

mintimperial - Member

Hmm. Wonder if everyone else working in the banking sector got similar career advice? Might go some way towards explaining the current global economic situation...

Hmm. Wonder if everyone else working in the banking sector got similar career advice? Might go some way towards explaining the current global economic situation...

Hey, I just install software, I don't make decisions about anyone's money!

I'm happy at the moment because I just got my slate pool table delivered and installed this morning 🙂

http://www.mojvideo.com/video-bacek-jon-shaun-goes-potty/75a206d4e898347a2d0e

and I licked the chalk 🙂

good health
happiness
peace of mind

Kev

poppa - Member

What I don't fully understand is where all the pressure to try and be wealthy, have a flash new car etc. comes from. I mean, most of us are pretty lucky in this day and age, we take for granted that food, running water, acommodation, medical care etc is well within everybodies reach. Why should anyone feel bad if they dont have/want the latest tech gadget, car the most expensive clothes etc?

I guess I must be a failure then. No I dont earn £35k but I don't care. 😳

I'm very happy. Married with a stunning little 3 weeks old daughter, healthy, own house (x2), 4 bikes & a few nice new cars.

I'm guessing the 6 little numbers I got correct help tho!! 😆

To be at peace with one's existence.

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

Conan the Barbarian?

Looking at the confusion here it's obvious a lot if us don't truly know what makes us feel happy -- so why not an app? Looks for common themes/things that are around when your happy, then at least you'll know what it is that makes you happy.

So does this app use peer reviewed scientific methods to determine your happiness? Or is it a big load of hairy balls?

I don't think a big load of hairy balls would determine my happiness, obviously some people like that sort of thing tho 🙂

Conan the Barbarian?

I don't think a big load of hairy balls would determine my happiness, obviously some people like that sort of thing tho

I think there are quite a few people who would be happy if they had regular access to a big load of hairy balls.

Regarding the wealth vs. happiness...I wish I had known what I know know when I decided on my current career path - there are other things I'd rather be doing that sat at a desk.

Lets be honest, in global terms, we are all extremely wealthy, so if your not happy, money is not going to be the root cause...it's how you [i]perceive[/i] money that affects your happiness.

Started my career at 35 and am now having to look at retraining already (36). Massive student loan and enormous mortgage with very little disposable income and no savings/pension .

Very happy though, great marriage and two cracking daughters, happy within myself and I'm sure the economics will catch up at some point.

Had a good life up to my early 30's, had loads of spare income, had more nice cars/watches/clothes than most people will ever have so I no longer aspire to such things as they are just not important.

Money is nice, but you don't need it to be happy.

Achieving what you set out to do.

Too much sense is being talked on this thread.

Achieving what you set out to do.

Little as possible... 😀

Having enough cheese?

I feel like I'm doing well as long as there's someone less fortunate than me I can take the piss out of.

I'm doing well at failing. Does that count? I don't think it's the failing that's the problem; it's the awareness of it that get you down.

All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy.

Me n the wife don't earn 36K between us!

live in a 3 bed semi ex council place with a tiny mortgage 😀 ,one 6 year old and one imminent.

All the bills are in credit , we have 6 bikes between us only 2 aren't in use due to a belly full of arms n legs. Everything is good at home we're all 'Doing well in life'

I got good results at school but really didn't want to carry on in education (read lazy).My mum is always cracking on about how I could've done better/be earning more.

I'd rather be happy than rich , my family are in good health and we don't want for much. that's all I need.

Access to decent libraries is always close to the top of my list.

And a working bike.

I agree with clubber.

Spend time doing the things that make you happy, but not screwing anyone over in the process.

All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy.

Access to decent libraries is always close to the top of my list.

You've got to be kidding, right?

You measure the level of success in your life by your proximity to a building with books in it?

I can see the benefit in books (well, not really as I don't read anything but bike mags and porno (well I don't 'read' the prono but you know what I mean)) but being near a room full hardly defines you as a person.

You measure the level of success in your life by your proximity to a building with books in it?

I have a lifelong [url= http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley ]'Bod'[/url] library card, awarded upon graduation from Oxford University. I'm reasonably happy with that achievement.

So, in short, yes. 8)

Wife I love and who loves me.
Same goes for my son.
Nice house I'm happy with and can afford in a nice town in a nice part of the country, with a good network of friends locally, both bikey and non-bikey.
Good network of friends bikey and non-bikey nationally too.
Happy extended family (for the most part), although not local which is a bit of a bummer.
Career of choice that pays as well as can be expected, yet still gives me plenty of time at home.
Time to ride a few times a week and enough cash to cover bike breakages/upgrades if sensible.
Healthy and nearly as fit as I can be.

Yeah, I'm doing ok 🙂

Happy and healthy.
Wife that I adore, and she adores me 99% of the time.
Two lovely kids, with whom I cherish every minute.
Lovely and loving parents, have given me a brilliant start in life.
Great family, and on the out-laws side too.
Could do with more money, but then again I enjoy my job a lot, so no real complaints.
Could do with more time on the bike and for fitness, but the above take priority.
Don't need an App to measure any of the above surely?

Why not say you;

'measure success by getting a posh degree at a posh Uni, which by the way lets me get into a posh library to read (no doubt) posh books.

So clearly I'm soooo much more successful than you bunch of thick gits'

Rather than some coded bollox about 'access to decent libraries'

It might just be me, but I'd rather have teeth than a library card.

but I'd rather have teeth than a library card

That is some excellent menacing you are doing there TSY. Nice work.

I've got a great library round the corner. If only I could read

Torm - I think someone's stolen my log on... I've been rubbishing people's bikes over there <<< all morning, completely out of character.

Rather than some coded bollox about 'access to decent libraries'

Nope, any library will do. I just like books. Big rooms of 'em, even better. Doesn't make me more intelligent or successful than anybody else on here, but - shockers - it does make me happy. You were the one questioning why that should be so.

I suspect we are both big and ugly enough to deal with that fact, eh?

TSY - laminated library cards can also be used to slice up food in an emergency.

😆

... and TBF it'd probably be a better way of escaping from the rock in 127 hours too...

Given that councils seem to be reducing the number of libraries due to lack of demand, your life is going to get decidedly shit.

WTF?

Weirdo.

Plus, laminated library cards can be used for cutting up a line of drugs just before you snort it.

That might explain a few things?

your life is going to get decidedly shit

There's always knitting. Or bowls.

That might explain a few things?

Necking drugs can hardly compare with the excitement of a town library on a wet tuesday afternoon. But perhaps you can't handle it.