Years ago, I worked on several land-use projects, and during public hearings someone inevitably would shout at the city council: “Protect our quality of life!” And everyone in the room would nod and seem to understand the meaning.
But no one ever explained precisely the meaning of the term. Imagine if you were a land developer and someone said that in reference to your proposed project – that building it would “ruin our quality of life.” To answer, first you need to know what their quality of life was or is in the first place.
I guess we could just ask each speaker who used the term. Is there a universal quality of life; or is there one for each person? How do we measure quality of life?
As land developers, we just tried to placate naysayers best we could, eliminating project elements they really didn’t like, maybe adding an amenity or two to soothe concerns. But, why?
If we didn’t know what it was, how could we possibly protect it?
Standard of Health, Comfort and Happiness
According to Lexico.com, a collaboration between Dictionary.com and Oxford University Press to help people with language challenges, quality of life means this:
“The standard of health, comfort, and happiness experienced by an individual or group.”
LEXICO.COM
So, then the question might be, what is “standard”? A kind of a thermometer-like gauge of the health, comfort and happiness of a community? Is there like an Alexa ranking for it? Of course, back when I was promoting land-use plans we didn’t have the luxury of super-fast numerical grades for almost everything like we do today.
The Lexico website gives many example sentences, some which help shed at least a little light. Like, “If a hog barn is built next to my farm and affects my quality of life and property value, I can’t be compensated.”
Or maybe, “Whenever we use the conventional economy to extract from nature at rates faster than nature can regenerate, we are degrading the productivity of the ecological economy, and ultimately will degrade our overall quality of life.”
Huh? Maybe the term is not very appropriate to use in academic pieces. Let’s see what regular people say.
Who Says It and How
Did you know Wikipedia provides a quite robust outline of the term “quality of life”? However, in the end, it’s a tad too complicated to explain in plain eight grade-level English what quality of life means. Let’s see what regular folks say about it.
For personal thoughts on this subject, perhaps Akiroq Brost provides the best summary: “Peace, happiness, and love are a daily practice. Give time and energy to that which you want more of in your life. Invest in yourself for a higher quality of life. You’re worth it.”
Other insights, thanks to GoodReads.com, may be useful:
- “Questions you ask indicates the curiosity you hold, reveals your thinking patterns, states the intensity of your longing to know, demonstrates your desire and involvement, determines the quality of life you live.” – Anand Patwa
- “The quality of our life is directly proportional to the quality of our thoughts.” – Avijeet Das
- “The quality of your life is given via the quality of the thinking you have done.” – Pearl Zhu
- “The conscious choices you make everyday lay the foundation for your mental and physical health and also determine the quality of life you lead.” – Sanchita Pandey
The best quotes on the topic seem to come from Brost, of Mexico, a “Human Potential inspirational writer”:
- “You have a choice as to how you live your life. You have a choice as to how you feel about how you live your life. Make choices that serve you, that serve to both better your experience and the quality of your life.”
- “Don’t just seek out help when you are suffering. Every day is a good day to learn, grow, and help yourself. Every day is a good day to invest in bettering the quality of your life.”
- “Peace, happiness, and love are a daily practice. Give time and energy to that which you want more of in your life. Invest in yourself for a higher quality of life. You’re worth it.”
Final Thoughts: Seeking World Happiness in Your Country
Earlier, I asked if there was some kind of Alexa-like ranking for the term. Probably not, but there is something called The World Happiness Report, a landmark survey on the state of global happiness. Research them and learn how happy your country is thought to be.
