What Americans Want to Live a Fulfilling Life

If you think Americans want money and fame to live a fulfilling life, think twice. In a recent study by Pew Research, 71% of Americans said having a job or career they enjoy is extremely or very important to live a fulfilling life. While 24% said having a lot of money is the most important. Does this survey results surprise you?

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

~ Confucius

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Pursue Success of Fulfillment in Life

In this success driven world, for many, it is difficult to even fathom the difference between success and fulfillment. Do you understand the difference between them? It’s okay if you don’t because it’s not that straightforward. Now let’s try to understand what we usually mean by success. Often what we mean by success is money, fame and power. Now, if you don’t have either of them, would you consider yourself successful? But if you said even if I don’t have a lot of money, fame or power, I still feel fulfilled in life. Would that be an understatement? Then that begs the question: should we pursue success or fulfillment in life?

What Americans Want to Live a Fulfilling Life

A study by Pew Research found that a whopping 71% of Americans that having a job or career they enjoy is extremely or very important in order for people to live a fulfilling life. 61% of those said having close friends is extremely important. Whereas only 24% said having a lot of money is the most important.

Does this research data surprise you? It may or may not at the same time. The reason is for many, the job that we do becomes our identity, so it might be easy to fathom that is what we believe is extremely important to live a fulfilling life. Having close friends, having a relationship, then family and children is also totally understandable. But might be interesting is that having a lot of money is not the most important to live a fulfilling life. Since in materialistic America, it seems everyone is chasing money. Is that an overstatement?

Having a Job or Career that We Enjoy

Do you know how much of our time we spend at work? It’s over 90,000 hours over a lifetime, that is one third of our lives. So it is quite imperative that we spend this time not only to earn our livelihood but also we really enjoy the work. Work is a gift. Have we not heard work is worship? Then why do we say “thank god it’s Friday”? Why is it we need to enjoy work? That is because if we don’t enjoy our work, most likely we will not be successful in our work as well.

Besides, we live only one life and that too a short one. Then should we not use our valuable time doing a work that we feel good about doing? That which can give us true fulfillment? So it might not be wrong to say one who loves his or her work has already achieved success at work and in life. Because our identity often becomes our work if we truly love it and feel passionate about.

Having Close Friends and Family

Moreso, relationship is one of the 10 drivers for finding fulfillment in life. Robert Waldinger, director of a 75-year-extensive study of adult development, concluded that the most critical contributor to living a fulfilled life is strong relationships. He shared in TED Ideas worth spreading, “What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you think it’s fame and money, you’re not alone.” These relationships that matter can be in our personal and professional lives.

Having a Lot of Money

According to an article published in MarketWatch on March 4, 2018, psychologists analyzed 1.7 million people in 164 countries for earnings with life satisfaction. This accommodated differences in cost of living across countries. They found the ideal income for individuals is $95,000 a year for life satisfaction and $60,000 to $75,000 a year for emotional well-being. It also noted that families with children will need more.

We should own our life, and not let things own it. When we have a lot of things, who owns our lives? Our things or we? Say, for example, we have a vacation beach house and a boat. And during a category hurricane, if we are living miles away, what is it we would worry most about? Beach house condition? And boat? Probably leasing a beach house and a boat as and when we need might be a better alternative.

Conclusion on What Americans Want to Live a Fulfilling Life

In a nutshell, what Americans want to live a fulfilling life is probably no different from what people across the globe yearn for. The only caveat is that the fulfillment in life follows the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. That means the needs of most people in a more developed country like the US might differ from that of a developing country like India. For example, in a developing country, the needs of lower-income people may be more driven by basic needs that are lower in the hierarchy of needs. But as the basic needs get fulfilled, people across the globe yearn to achieve self-actualization or their full potential through more meaningful jobs that help achieve their calling and purpose in life.