Adults like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask about the essentials. It never occurs to them to ask: “What’s the tone of his voice? What games does he like best? Does he like collecting butterflies?”
Instead, they ask, “How old are you? How many siblings do you have? How much do you weigh? How much does your father earn?” They think they know you based on these details alone.
If we tell grown-ups, “I saw a beautiful pink brick house with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof,” they’ll never be able to imagine what that house looks like. We need to tell them, “I saw a house worth one hundred thousand pesos.” Then they’ll exclaim excitedly, “Oh, how beautiful it is!”
This is one of my favorite passages from “The Little Prince,” a few sentences long but with great meaning for our daily lives. We need to be happy, not rich. But we often forget this.
Each thing is unique, not because of its price but because of the meaning you give it
It’s difficult to fight against a society that seems obsessed with the material world, where we’re constantly urged to buy things we don’t need because “that’s the only way we can be happy,” and where our car or smartphone are synonymous with our success in life. However, it’s not an impossible mission, especially if we start from the idea that we don’t need much to be happy, because true happiness doesn’t come from outside, but from within.
Happiness is achieved through shared experiences, looking within ourselves, so it’s important that we learn to focus more on the value of things, not their price. In fact, an expensive thing may not bring us anything, but a valuable thing is meaningful to us. Although we often confuse the two terms and use them interchangeably.
However, something expensive isn’t necessarily valuable, and something valuable doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. It’s important to be aware of this difference so that we can value things for the meaning we give them, not their price.
And this isn’t a trivial change. When we focus on price, we let society dictate the value and meaning we assign to something. Thus, we think something is valuable and useful just because it’s expensive. On the contrary, when we begin to think in terms of value, we’re not influenced by price; we begin to ask ourselves if we really like that product, if it represents us, or if it satisfies us. It’s a radical transformation!
Don’t forget the child inside you
When we were children, the last thing we cared about was price. We didn’t enjoy a toy more because it was more expensive, nor did we prefer an experience because it involved more expense. Children enjoy experiences; they are happy about anything that involves fun, affection, and companionship. In fact, most children prefer coins to bills, simply because coins are more fun to play with.
Only later do adults instill in them the concept of “social value,” the meaning of money, and, of course, the relationship between prices and social status. It was our parents, teachers, or playmates who taught us that value lies in price, not in intentions, love, or potential.
That’s when we lost the ability to evaluate things based on what an activity or object actually brings us. At that point, we fell into the web that society has woven and began to think that something is better or more valuable just because it’s more expensive.
The good news is that this capacity is actually still within us; we just need to reactivate it. To achieve this, we must begin to look within ourselves, trying to set aside prejudices and focusing exclusively on emotions. Only then will you discover what things or experiences truly make you happy.
At first, it will be difficult because we’ve made a very strong association between price and satisfaction. However, if you’re a careful observer, you’ll realize that the things you buy because of their price only provide immediate satisfaction; they’re things you don’t really buy for yourself, but to show off to others.
On the contrary, valuable things are those that you find hard to part with, even if they are old and worn, because they have a history, you have given them meaning, and, in some way, they make you happy.
The interesting thing about this exercise is that when you stop obsessively thinking about the price of things and always buying more, you become rich. You are rich because you can find happiness in small, everyday details and you understand that you don’t need much to live fully. After all, remember that if we aren’t happy with what we have, we won’t be happy with what we lack either.
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