Satisfaction VS Happiness

A Current Misunderstanding.

I've noticed that we're a society who is bent on being Happy. Every  day we are confronted with advertisements, slogans and random people who want us to find happiness, like it is some elusive prey animal. If happiness was an animal it would be a bird of some sort. Fast and fleeting, hard to find, hard to catch. There would be very few pictures of this bird, its genus species would read, Emoticus Happifleeticus. Few if any pictures of this bird would exist and its migration pattern would be random at best. Now, I am not saying that I am not a happy person. On the contrary I am extremely satisfied and happy with life.

But still the problem remains. We are a people obsessed to finding happiness, however we miss the more important notion of satisfaction. What I mean by this differentiation in terms is this: Happiness is when you find twenty dollars in your jeans from the wash, or when your favorite _________ team is going to the playoffs, or when you receive a letter/ E-Mail from an old friend with good news, etc. Satisfaction on the other hand is something that you work toward and achieve in life. To often we hear of people having a midlife crises, or being unhappy with their life and this falls into what we have been led to believe by the media for years, that we are supposed to be happy. Movies like The Pursuit of Happyness, lead you to think, "Oh if I work hard, I will be happy". This is not so. No one ever said that life was going to be happy. In fact our ancestors knew that life was hard and filled with small joys. Now there seems to be a google of products that claim to solve your problems, all screaming in unison BUY ME.

Now I think I should make some distinctions for the sake of the reader. I am not saying that products or capitalism is bad, I am saying that the amount of advertisements and products that we have that are useless crap, a waste of money, is a problem. Second, I am also not saying in any way, shape or form that depression is not a real disease. It is. It can lead people to become disillusioned with life and destroy it.
What I am saying though, is that if we as a society stop trying to find happiness, and instead work on being satisfied, then we will be a happier society as a byproduct. To become satisfied, you have to realize that unhappiness in life and envy, are drawn from the same emotion, which is dissatisfaction. It's not hard to see why. Every single commercial on TV, from diet pills, to work out machines, to make-up and clothing commercials tell us to be dissatisfied with our current thread, weight, furniture...etc, and to buy more. This is the root of our over consumerism. I urge you instead, to take all of that with a grain of salt. Maybe turn off the TV for a start. Second, look at your life, and decided what you want. Start with basics and move up from there.
Too many times people don't feel empowered in their own lives. This is the key, this is why we are the U.S.,
We have the opportunity, if you work for it, to achieve anything we want. That is what made this country great to begin with. We still have that power, now more than ever. Use it. Use it well. Take back your own life.
I promise you, you will be satisfied in the end.