Status makes us Happy
Although money doesn’t make us happy, research suggests that status does, opening an interesting debate as to what status actually means. At first glance status appears to be a ‘reactive’ response where our sense of it is based largely upon the feedback of others. So then where does our opinion of ourselves play into this dynamic? How plausible is an intrinsically rather than extrinsically defined sense of status? In essence I suppose intrinsically defined status’ is what we refer to as ‘mental wellbeing’; a sense of our own worth that comes from within and does not require a huge public profile or a large home to be realised. Instead, what true status appears to come down to, – the status that makes us happy, is the outward manifestation of the impact we have made on the world, our world. It’s about feeling we have made a positive contribution, no matter how big nor how small and feeling that that contribution – has been heard.