Australians are looking for more fun, family and friendship and less money and “things”. It’s part of a worldwide trend toward a search for more meaningful lives. Where money was once the currency of a successful life, wealth is increasingly being measured in connection, sustainability and happiness.

Despite more than a decade of economic prosperity, Australians are searching for more. Consider the results of a survey undertaken by Ipsos Mackay on behalf of The Sydney Morning Herald. Although wages are rising and unemployment is low, 40 per cent of Australians say life is getting worse while only 25 per cent say life is getting better. The survey shows that people are searching for happiness, not a new Porsche or plasma TV.

In the Herald survey, health was the most important factor contributing to happiness for 18 per cent of Australians, followed by community and friends (8 per cent), and religious/spiritual life (5 per cent). Only 4 per cent considered money and their financial situation the most important factor in their happiness, while work fulfilment and a "nice place to live" were each cited by 2 per cent of Australians as the key to wellbeing. Women give a much higher priority to family relationships (67 per cent compared with 51 per cent of men) as the main source of happiness, and men are more likely to cite community and friends (11 per cent compared with 6 per cent of women). (SMH Sept 16, 2006.)

According to the Australia Institute, a public thinktank, the vast majority believe Australia has become self-centred and materialistic. The Institute also points out that every year, Australians spend $10.5 billion on things they either don’t use or throw away. We may have more materially, but happiness and harmony have been ebbing away. The tide is turning, though.

Changing focus

Pay packets in Australia have doubled over the past decade, according to treasury figures. Even the least well-off have experienced wages growth of 22 per cent. Despite this, more than one-third of the population are popping anti-depressant medications and a script for antidepressant medication is filled every two seconds (see ‘Depression and Anxiety Special Report’, WellBeing issue 106, October 2006). So what is behind the shift from a money-centric world view to one that places an emphasis on meaning and happiness? One theory lays the answer at the feet of the much-slandered Baby Boomer generation.

As the Baby Boomers realise there’s more of their life behind them than ahead, they’re on the lookout for more from the years to come. Daniel Pink in his book A Whole New Mind writes that it’s a biological and psychological part of the ageing process. Pink says, as people mature, their cognitive patterns become less abstract (left brain) and more concrete (right brain), which results in a sharpened sense of reality, increased capacity for emotion and enhancement of their sense of connection to a greater whole. In other words, as individuals age, they place greater em¬phasis on qualities they might have neglected in the rush to build careers and raise families. Qualities like purpose, intrinsic satis¬faction and meaning become a priority.

It would be a simplification of the current trend to say it’s all about an ageing population, though. The surveys tell us that all people, young and old, are searching for more than economic prosperity. Maybe the whole world is getting a little more right-brain in its orientation. Maybe the collective consciousness is shifting, evolving. Whatever the reason, the question is, how do you achieve the meaning you seek?