The Global Society

I had the good fortune of being exposed to numerous cultures and countless history lessons while growing up, and because of this, I think I was given the opportunity to see the world from many different perspectives.  Now in my 30s, I continue to travel and expose myself to as much of the world as I can.  Whether it's close to home or in the middle of nowhere in a remote corner of the planet, there are cultures and traditions worth experiencing and memories waiting to be born.

Colonia, Uruguay

When you first embark on a quest, whether it's one of curiosity or one of travel, you start to notice that there are two different breeds of people.  The first of the two consists of those that like to stay close to home and are either afraid of or have no desire to experience the world beyond what they've become accustomed to.  They stay within their bubble and if they do happen to venture out, they appear uncomfortable and remain tethered to home in one form or another.  If and when they travel, they tend to stick to all the typical sites found in a travel guide and never venture out to experience real local culture. If they're in New York they'll visit the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Big Ben in London, etc . . . and they'll eat at major chain restaurants which they probably frequent back home.  This is an extremely boring way to travel and see the world, yet when these people return to their homes they will speak of their experience as if it were really exciting, while recommending the same trip to everyone they talk to.  The reality behind this kind of travel and this breed of individual is that they really aren't trying to learn anything new because they lack true curiosity and have no interest in experiencing local life.  They enjoy telling people where they've been, even though in most cases they know nothing about those places.  Instead of exposing themselves to new experiences, they bring what they know with them on their journey and return home as the same uninteresting person they were when they first set out.

The Narrows | Zion National Park

The other breed consists of the more adventurous types.  This doesn't mean they're roaming around the globe seeking near death experiences, this just means they're comfortable being uncomfortable and willing to immerse themselves in whatever it is they're doing.  If they travel somewhere new, even if only for a day, they live there for that day.  They don't visit a place, they make it their home for the duration.  People of this breed make new lifelong friends wherever they go.  When I cross paths with one of these individuals I immediately notice something different, yet familiar.  It's as if we both were part of the same fraternity or grew up in the same town.  Although we may have never met before, we feel an instant connection.  The reason for this is because we're both part of what I'll call the Global Society.  People that are members instantly recognize each other without saying a word.  Even though we may have spawned from different corners of the globe, our roots are embedded everywhere.  Some people that are part of this worldwide club may have never traveled a day in their life, but they possess an inquisitive nature and desire that expands their horizon beyond where the sun sets.  It's always refreshing to stumble upon such individuals and share stories while at the same time adding another chapter to your own captivating autobiography.  When parting ways you both feel like you've learned something new and know that you've made a friend for life, a friend that will most likely relate to you more than most of the friends you grew up with.  The Global Society is the closest thing you'll find to a utopia, it's a place where race, religion, and politics have no relevance.

Mendenhall Glacier | Alaska

Members of the Global Society are some of the wealthiest people you'll ever meet, regardless of the monetary value of all their assets or what they have in the bank.  These individuals are a wealth of knowledge and experience.  These people keep you humble and modest and constantly remind you to ditch the blinders and look at the world with eyes wide open.

We Are the Sum Total of Our Experiences

The Science Of Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things

Most people are in the pursuit of happiness. There are economists who think happiness is the best indicator of the health of a society. We know that money can make you happier, though after your basic needs are met, it doesn't make you that much happier. But one of the biggest questions is how to allocate our money, which is (for most of us) a limited resource.

There's a very logical assumption that most people make when spending their money: that because a physical object will last longer, it will make us happier for a longer time than a one-off experience like a concert or vacation. According to recent research, it turns out that assumption is completely wrong.

"One of the enemies of happiness is adaptation," says Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades. "We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them."

photo by Steven Williams

So rather than buying the latest iPhone or a new BMW, Gilovich suggests you'll get more happiness spending money on experiences like going to art exhibits, doing outdoor activities, learning a new skill, or traveling.

Gilovich's findings are the synthesis of psychological studies conducted by him and others into the Easterlin paradox, which found that money buys happiness, but only up to a point. How adaptation affects happiness, for instance, was measured in a study that asked people to self-report their happiness with major material and experiential purchases. Initially, their happiness with those purchases was ranked about the same. But over time, people's satisfaction with the things they bought went down, whereas their satisfaction with experiences they spent money on went up.

It's counterintuitive that something like a physical object that you can keep for a long time doesn't keep you as happy as long as a once-and-done experience does. Ironically, the fact that a material thing is ever present works against it, making it easier to adapt to. It fades into the background and becomes part of the new normal. But while the happiness from material purchases diminishes over time, experiences become an ingrained part of our identity.

"Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods," says Gilovich. "You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences."

One study conducted by Gilovich even showed that if people have an experience they say negatively impacted their happiness, once they have the chance to talk about it, their assessment of that experience goes up. Gilovich attributes this to the fact that something that might have been stressful or scary in the past can become a funny story to tell at a party or be looked back on as an invaluable character-building experience.

Another reason is that shared experiences connect us more to other people than shared consumption. You're much more likely to feel connected to someone you took a vacation with in Bogotá than someone who also happens to have bought a 4K TV.

photo by Steven Williams

"We consume experiences directly with other people," says Gilovich. "And after they're gone, they're part of the stories that we tell to one another."

And even if someone wasn't with you when you had a particular experience, you're much more likely to bond over both having hiked the Appalachian Trail or seeing the same show than you are over both owning Fitbits.

You're also much less prone to negatively compare your own experiences to someone else's than you would with material purchases. One study conducted by researchers Ryan Howell and Graham Hill found that it's easier to feature-compare material goods (how many carats is your ring? how fast is your laptop's CPU?) than experiences. And since it's easier to compare, people do so.

"The tendency of keeping up with the Joneses tends to be more pronounced for material goods than for experiential purchases," says Gilovich. "It certainly bothers us if we're on a vacation and see people staying in a better hotel or flying first class. But it doesn't produce as much envy as when we're outgunned on material goods."

Gilovich's research has implications for individuals who want to maximize their happiness return on their financial investments, for employers who want to have a happier workforce, and policy-makers who want to have a happy citizenry.

"By shifting the investments that societies make and the policies they pursue, they can steer large populations to the kinds of experiential pursuits that promote greater happiness," write Gilovich and his coauthor, Amit Kumar, in their recent article in the academic journal Experimental Social Psychology.

If society takes their research to heart, it should mean not only a shift in how individuals spend their discretionary income, but also place an emphasis on employers giving paid vacation and governments taking care of recreational spaces.

"As a society, shouldn't we be making experiences easier for people to have?" asks Gilovich.