We live in a society today that is consumption minded and definitely focused on instant gratification, but at the same time we also live in a society that is conflicted by wanting more but doesn’t want the social stigma attached to them of being seen as wanting more.

Is it wrong to want more? Is more better?

In 2000, psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper published a remarkable study. On one day, shoppers at an upscale food market saw a display table with 24 varieties of gourmet jam. Those who sampled the spreads received a coupon for $1 off any jam. On another day, shoppers saw a similar table, except that only six varieties of the jam were on display. The large display attracted more interest than the small one. But when the time came to purchase, people who saw the large display were one-tenth as likely to buy as people who saw the small display.

A further study has been conducted by Chris Manolis of Xavier University and James Roberts of Baylor University which has found that having more free time and possessing more material goods also doesn’t necessarily make you happier.  The results were in agreement, showing that those who practice compulsive buying and who put a great importance on material goods had a lower happiness level. Also, according to the study, adolescent happiness levels can be affected by simply balancing the amount of free time we possess.

From these studies, more isn’t always necessarily better.  The Manolis and Roberts study is the one that we agree with in that it depends on what the more is. 

With our clients we do believe that ‘more is better’ and not only is it not wrong to want more, but you should strive to want more of the right stuff. 

We believe the right stuff for us and for our clients, consists of the following –

Health – If we don’t have our health right then every other part of our lives are affected, we definitely should want more health and health related activities in our life (it will differ for each person what this is).

Family / Free Time – the correct balance of free time (not too much though) that can be enjoyed both individually and with your family (whatever this structure may be). We should want more of this as there is no doubt that we live in a society that has greater flexibility but still we are time poor and do not get enough free time or even use the free time that we have unproductively (social media a large cause of this unproductive use), thereby creating the illusion that we don’t have enough.

Experiences – wanting more experience in your life is so important. Whenever you sit and talk to someone who can share so much life experience, you do think I would love to have more myself and so life experiences are definitely where more is better.

Overriding all of this is happiness!!

This is a hard word to say what it truly means for all people, but we believe you should want more happiness in your life and this comes about by being content and happy with the three points above. 

Piece of mind and comfort are what we strive for ourselves and the people that we work with to find this happiness and knowing that it is absolutely okay to want more, just make sure it is more of the right stuff. To lean more just contact the team at Eqeus today.