I don’t swim and don’t watch TV, so no boats or flatscreens here. That’s all just junk you have to juggle, move, pack up, and pay down anyhow. Too much work keeping it all straight.

Careers are like marriages — any old one won’t do as well as any others, and if you enter into it for the wrong reasons, it doesn’t end well. Like anything else, a good one can be wonderful, and a bad one can sap the life out of you.

You’re also correct when you state that “you can’t take all… [those posessions with you].” I agree. One of the biggest mistakes I have seen is people gathering all the material things in the world for themselves, only later (when it’s too late) to find out that they missed the most beautiful things in life.

My grandmother use to say: Sometimes the beauty of life doesn’t alaways comes wrapped in gold.

What happened to just ENJOYING life? Accept what you have (middle class isn’t so bad, you know) and be happy with it? Life is too short.

When you are dead you can’t take all that worthless junk with you.

If you have a career that actually HELPS another person or serves a just cause or purpose, then more power to you.

We need more of you than the others.

Into a dozen other fun things. But you can still look back with satisfaction on the things you may have achieved in your career and the respect you gained from your colleagues. Careers are great! But you never put all your happiness eggs in one basket — the world’s too big and there are too many fun things to learn, make, and do.

Become less of a superficial society (or become the first to support this)
Show more kindness
Find a spiritual purpose
Raise your children with all your heart
Create a strong moral foundation for yourself
Love unconditionally
Treat people as you’d like to be treated

I could go on for days!

In response to the “better looking people are treated better,” this is incorrect. If you aren’t secretly followed around by a guy you’ll have a door slammed in your face by a female in competition with you. There is also unnecessary jealousy that creates so much pain and frustration on the end of the receiver. Furthermore, people tend to view “better looking people” as happy, when in all actuality they could be severely depressed. They are also viewed as shallow, when in some cases, this is not true.

Essentially, nice looking people go through a lot. So the best way to guard against unhappiness is to be the best person you can be and not the best looking person you can be

Lastly, a career can only last for so long. When that fails, where does your happiness go then?

I certainly agree with the first two though, at least in my experience. Free time to pursue your own talents and a worthwhile job to find satisfaction in (aas well as respect and compensation) are big pluses in life. Looks, though? BIG waste of time. Trust me on this. They get you nothing worth having.