Change is possible! We are not sheep! My teeth are just white enough as they are 😊
Our second post to Silent Signals shares feelings of anxiety about the cost of living and our consistent dissatisfaction with what we have. There is a recognition that this dissatisfaction is leading to greater financial insecurity and eroding true happiness.
This Silenced Signal was received from someone attending our pop-up at the Trinity-Bellwoods Farmer’s Market in May, 2025.
Below is Monica’s response to the Silenced Signal. Read Annette’s response.
This post really resonated with me. I too feel like we are collectively chasing an imaginary happiness dragon. And this is only natural because we are consistently told there is this exuberant level of happiness out there that we can simply unlock. All we need is a pair of the latest jeans, fancy nails, a vacation, a staycation with a visit to that hot new restaurant, a spa day, a life coach….. These are not bad things – hell they all sound great. But they, in of themselves will not bring us happiness and joy. We need to know that so we can make decisions that do bring us genuine happiness and joy. Also, collectively all these things are contributing to planetary degradation and social injustice – all those vacations and things take a lot of carbon, lead to a lot of waste, and realistically, the workers sewing those jeans were probably earning poverty level wages.
So – how might we move towards genuine contentment?
Reflecting and understanding ourselves
I know it is hard to step back and create the mind space to really think about what makes us feel connected, content and joyful. But I also know that when we do this, it helps us make better decisions and creates space for us to intentionally respond to the world around us. As Viktor Frankl wrote “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom”.
If we are clear about what will enable true happiness, we can use that as a criterion for decision making. It can help us with making decisions around what to invest in and what we spend time on.
How much of our time and budget is really allocated to the things that make us happy? How might we continuously move in a direction that is closer to alignment between what makes us happy and what we are investing in? How might we collectively move in a direction that is in alignment with planetary sustainability and social justice?
Building and using our critical thinking and decision-making muscles
I know we are trained to look outside us for solutions – something we can buy, something a coach or consultant can guide us to. But I believe real transformational change will come down to us individually and collectively using our critical thinking and decision-making muscles (coaches and consultants can support but we will have to do the work).
I remember when I worked at P&G. It was right around the time when Crest Whitestrips came out. Prior to the availability of at home teeth whitening, teeth had a natural colour to them. Sure, there were smokers who had very yellow teeth, and some usage of professional whitening services. But generally, there was variation in teeth colour, and it was natural. Then companies innovated and began to market happy people with bright smiles – everyone could have bright white teeth and we would all be happy! Now, we are bombarded with ads and our standard for teeth has changed – a larger number of people have bright white teeth making normal variation more of an outlier. Also, Canadians have significantly increased their spending on a variety of teeth whitening products enabling generous returns for companies and shareholders – the teeth whitening market is valued at $253.9 Million annually[1].
The questions is - are we a happier people? For some individuals, teeth whitening may in fact be an enabler of happiness. But generally whiter teeth are not leading to greater happiness. In fact, mental health disorders are increasing in Canada for a variety of reasons. 29% of Canadians reported a diagnosis of depression, anxiety or other mental health condition in 2023[2] while 44% of Canadians say money is their leading source of stress[3]. So in this example, we are spending money on a product category that promises smiles and happiness while becoming increasingly anxious about money and experiencing poorer wellness overall. This is chasing an imaginary dragon! And I can see this happening at scale on an endless number of products and services. Collectively the scale of consumption through products and services is not only eroding our wallets – it is also eroding our ecosystem and communities.
Beyond Personal Choices: The Power of Professional and Community Decisions
We are also seeing this chasing play out in the professional sphere. Think of consistently new marketing campaigns, innovative packaging and endless consultants, new AI processes and systems, new software and self-serve POS. Like the individual realm, there are times and places where such investments can provide value but from what I have seen genuine value is generated when there is a criterion for decision making, a deep understanding of the organization and system, clarity around organizational needs and informed, strategic and holistic decisions. This means really stepping back and thinking about the goals, root issues and how to address them in a meaningful manner.
For example;
If we are a management team that is struggling to compete with organizations who have better service and new products, should we invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on new advertising and consultants or might there be value in sharing company ownership with employees to stimulate collective ownership and innovation?
If we are a finance team that is tired of growing costs for waste and energy, should we focus on negotiating lower costs, increasing prices or might there be an opportunity to invest in understanding root issues and redesigning systems and processes. Enviro-Stewards[4] has led some amazing work helping companies reduce their environmental impact and save millions of dollars.
If we are an internal manager trying to push forward sustainability policies and proposals but frustrated with lack of internal resources and buy-in, should we continue to hammer away or might there be value in creating space to consider ways to build internal champions, connection and support for sustainability priorities?
If we are in HR and recognize the gap between executives and customer service employees, might we continue to give into leadership recommendations for executive increases or might we work on building the business case for greater equity across the organization and work on recommendations to revamp the pay structure?
These are just examples – starting points to spark ideas. What matters most is not the specific actions, but that we know what our north star is (What will make us happy? What is genuine value for our organization), and that we use our critical thinking and decision-making muscles to make progress towards our north star.
This is how we can collectively stop chasing that happiness dragon and build genuine individual and collective wellbeing.
It can be done!
We are not sheep!
My teeth are just white enough as they are 😊
Original silenced signal:
“I think / worry about the cost of living. Not necessarily in the traditional definition, but more on I feel like we as a collective society no longer know how to be content with their lot in life. Not that we shouldn’t strive for better, but it has become the norm to take more and more to satisfy an image (or chasing an imaginary dragon). True happiness seems on the decline and the fake images of wealth and status have supplanted it.”
[1] https://teethwhiteningacademy.ca/why-teeth-whitening-services-are-in-demand-in-canada/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
[2] https://www.cihi.ca/en/canadians-report-increasing-need-for-mental-health-care-alongside-barriers-to-access
[3] https://www.fpcanada.ca/account/dashboard/fp-canada--2024-financial-stress-index-finds-91-per-cent-of-canadians-are-taking-steps-to-improve-financial-wellness-amidst-stress-increase
[4] https://enviro-stewards.com/