# Joy By [Ram](https://paragraph.com/@ram008) · 2024-02-27 --- What brings you joy? No amount of material wealth can result in sustained joy. Whether it is a raise you got, an unexpected windfall, a great day in the stock market, or gambling in Vegas. The joy derived from any of these can be very short-lived and often lead to bigger disappointment leading to a negative “joy offset”. Joy is a function of time, as, it is a function of your expectations. Expectations inevitably lead to disappointment either not meeting your bar or your time limit. Or it can pale in comparison to the achievement or luck of someone else. I have mentioned three curses of joy that a bot or animal with lesser sense will not experience for a prolonged time: * Comparison * Expectation * Attachment Joy comes to one who does not experience these feelings over a long time. Comparison is bottomless, there is ALWAYS going to be someone better than you; now and in future. Whether is in physical, intellectual or spiritual domains. That’s just the way it works. Roger Federer might have been the greatest tennis player at one time, he still could not beat Rafa’s record on Clay, he could not beat Serena’s record on slams nor could he keep his records for long. Novak will eventually meet the same end, or might have, depending on where you stand. Dynamic runner Kelvin Kiptum died suddenly at a young age, he could have scaled any number of records to be beaten by someone, in this case by laws of nature. Expectations of something in return, whether material or behavioral lead to disappointment when those expectations are unmet. When expectations are met, you raise expectations until they can no longer be met. Thus inevitably, the result is invariably disappointment can steal any joy from the expectations that have all been met or exceeded. Attachment is another path to ruin. No glue can be permanent. Thus no attachment can last. When it does not last, it will lead to joy being lost. Get rid of these three. Accept what you get with gratitude. Have compassion, not expectation. Give but don’t expect to get. Detach yourself from ego, wealth, joy and pain with humility. These are the pathways to sustainable joy. --- *Originally published on [Ram](https://paragraph.com/@ram008/joy)*