Introduction
Positive state of mind is influenced by various factors including safety, satisfaction and connection with others. Satisfaction is a major factor that is critical for an enduring positive state of mind and is responsible for a feeling of joy, contentment and a sense of meaning and value in life (Lightsey & Boyraz, 2011). It is the feeling an individual has because they have attained certain accomplishments and are successful by their own standards. Julie Beck looks at satisfaction as a feeling an individual has because of fullness in life as opposed to a feeling of worthlessness, emptiness or lack (Beck, 2013). Satisfaction is therefore a feeling of wellbeing, or a pleasurable feeling driven or attained by fulfilling a desire. It is critical to note that there are significant drawbacks and individual biases that prevent an individual from gaining positive state of mind by hindering his/her satisfaction. In spite of an individual’s achievement and observable success, there are fundamental circumstances that still deny them a sense of satisfaction and therefore lack of positive state of mind.
Scenarios
Comparing an individual’s achievements and status with peers is one bias that hinders a feeling of satisfaction. Whatever one has achieved loses value by their own standards when they notice that their age mates had accomplished greater levels than them. For example, a feeling of dissatisfaction creeps in among fresh graduates who realize that the people they graduated with the same year have better jobs than them. They n longer derive satisfaction from their work because others advance in life faster and their progress is better. The sense of satisfaction is derailed by colleagues who have better pay or live in good houses or even drive cars we they cannot afford. Desiring to live like others and to smile like them without considering the miles they have come inhibits individual’s state of happiness and self-generated feeling of value and accomplishment (Sinhababu, 2017). Individuals end up getting married because all their peers have married and not because that is what they planned to do. Satisfaction is therefore hindered by relating one’s situation with peers and colleagues. Therefore irrespective of what one has achieved, when they notice that others have accomplished more than them, they are dissatisfied with their own efforts and end up with negative state of mind.
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In addition, in ability to adequately meet the day to day demands of life hinders satisfaction. Many people in employment do not derive fulfillment from the jobs because the monetary reward do not meet the insatiable needs that keep on growing daily. Fueling car, paying rent and schools fees as well as buying food are demands that put pressure on the earning and therefore denying most people opportunity to enjoy fulfillment that can be brought by being employed. Additionally, many people though employed, live in debts and are in constant worry of how they will sort out the debts. Similarly, students are in constant worry of exams and tests so that they do not derive satisfaction from their studies. The daily demands have the ability to put pressure on people and deny them the positive state of mind. Another area that limits satisfaction is the pressure to meet specific deadlines and certain targets (Sinhababu, 2017). People are in frantic race to meet deadlines and please their bosses, tutors or employers. This drains the feeling of satisfaction in what they do. Therefore, the pressure to meet daily needs and targets can eliminate satisfaction.
Another factor that hinders satisfaction is doing the same thing repeatedly without progress. For example, staying in one position for several years without promotion leads to increased boredom and therefore brings dissatisfaction. The knowledge and experience gained over the long period of working ceases to excite the moment opportunities for growth are shut. Additionally, lack of adequate reward and recognition in that position may lead to dissatisfaction. Companies register high rate of turnovers with staff who have stayed in one position for a period of between 4 and 7 years (Sinhababu, 2017). One possible explanation is that most of them no longer find it fulfilling to do the same thing over and over again. They seek new experiences and new opportunities presenting fresh challenges. It is possible that the job is well paying and various opportunities are available in regards to the position, however, because it involves the same thing without new experience, the joy of doing it diminishes with time. Therefore, without significant reward and motivation, staying in one position over a long period of time has the ability of draining satisfaction from an individual.
Conclusion
Very simple things magnified are able to drain happiness out of people even when they have bigger reasons to rejoice and be happy. Just as Beck observes, individuals’ brains are naturally designed to concentrate on the bad things which deny them satisfaction and positive state of mind and ignore a myriads of achievements that have the ability to stimulate happiness (Beck, 2013). Satisfaction is therefore lost by failing to repeatedly administer goods into our systems that can grow inner strength and be able to deal adequately with bad. Instead, the concentration is on the bad that only leads to dissatisfaction.
References
Beck , J. (2013). How to Build A Happier Brain.
Lightsey, O. R., Jr., & Boyraz, G. (2011). Do Positive Thinking and Meaning Mediate the Positive Effect-Life Satisfaction Relationship? Canadian Journal of Behavioural science. 43(3), 203-213. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0023150
Sinhababu, N. (2017) Human Nature: How Desire Explains Actions, Thought and Feeling. Oxford University Press, PP 59-210. Accessed from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=ruwwDgAAQBAJ
