Don’t worry, be happy

I'm currently reading a book entitled "Happy City" by a Canadian writer and geographer named Charles Montgomery. It's about his research into how urban centres can be happy places for people to live in.

I'm not finished reading it yet but one of the first case studies he presents in the book has already made such an impact on me. It's not so much that it opened my eyes, more that it actually legitimises how I've tried to live my life.

Montgomery talks about the city of Bogota in Colombia. It is one of the most dangerous and also most economically challenged cities in the world. One day in 1998, they elected a new mayor by the name of Enrique Penalosa.

He conducted an experiment whereby on February 1st, all private motor vehicles were banned from entering the city. The citizens participated and no one drove. Surprisingly, everyone turned up at work and in school.

They all either took public transportation or walked, and on that day, there were no road accidents, the number of hospital emergency room check-ins decreased tremendously and the citizens of Bogota actually came together for once.

They realised that the thing that made people most unhappy was commuting to work – specifically, driving through traffic to work. So, eventually, the car-free day became a regular affair in the city.

People started enjoying walking to work and being out in the fresh air with everyone else. Soon, parks and public spaces were developed and built all around the city for people to take advantage of.

People started getting happier and happier. Mayor Penalosa also managed to divert the city's budget away from private transport towards education, revitalising the city and also providing running water for the urban poor.

According to Penalosa, the city's financial situation was lagging too far behind from more developed cities like those in the United States, and it was almost impossible to promise people more jobs and better salaries.

And so he decided to make people happy instead of wealthy. And the experiment he conducted was steeped in something called hedonics, an economic philosophy that focused on happiness instead of economic growth.

This is a wonderful concept and I never realised that the way I've prioritised my life all these years has been based on this. I have never chased the big bucks and I have definitely never chased a corporate career.

All I've ever wanted to do is to be happy, and all the decisions I've made in my life have been to make sure that I can continue being happy. Thankfully, because I've been happy in everything that I do, things have worked out well.

This is the one thing I want to instill in my daughter Athena Azlee. I also wish this for all my loved ones, everyone in Kuala Lumpur, and in Malaysia. I'm sure, like the citizens of Bogota, we can all lead happier, more meaningful and content lives.

As for the city of Bogota, the crime rate dropped, air pollution cleared up and traffic deaths reduced tremendously. But most importantly, the people became so happy they forgot all about trying to make money and becoming rich. – April 25, 2014.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.