What country state/province would I be happy living in?

What are you after??
Not enough information to go on.

@SQUEEKY2 I don’t know. I’m not sure. I love books and PBS. I’m looking for a place where I can have more opportunities to get ahead.

You lack the capacity for happiness, and no matter where you go you will always think the grass is greener somewhere else. Happiness is the art of making a boquet of those flowers within reach.

@Jak I’m happy where I am. I just want more opportunities to get ahead.

@RedDeerGuy
Find what you truly want to do,then find out what you have to do to get there.
No one is going to hire you to read books and watch you tube.
I suggest get a job and get out there among people whatever that job might be.

You are not happy where you are, and have ignored the opportunities that are abundantly available to you. It takes action on your part which you are unwilling to take. You are stuck because you refuse to take action but rather wait for something to happen to or for you. Sorry to sound harsh but I lack the ability, which so many possess, to tell you what you want to hear without actually ever speaking the plain truth.

@Jak I’m playing my life safe and prudent. I would like steak and potatos every day but instead I eat bacon and co-op frozen burgers. I just need more time to perfect my food budget and I will get ahead. I can save $400 a month by this method. Then I can pay off my student loans and go back to university. I have lots of books to read for a couple of years. So I’m set for entertainment and food.

“more opportunities to get ahead” means a bigger city.

If you like Red Deer, I think Calgary or Edmonton would be good, too.

http://www.findyourspot.com/

Try this quiz to find a place for you. I took it and it gave me exactly what I was looking for. It’s a very detailed quiz and it will also give you specific information about moving to the place it suggests.

I’m finding myself in general agreement with @Jak here. Though I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you “lack the capacity” to be happy – that’s a pretty bold assertion, based on very limited data – I would agree with her that you haven’t often demonstrated that in this forum.

Nearly everyone enjoys being entertained, but that’s hardly a route to happiness. “Contentment”, maybe – for a while, anyway.

What do you want to have in your life? What do you want to do or produce? What do you want to be? Moving positively to achieve some of those goals – once you have firmly established them and developed realistic plans and steps to achieve them – and accomplishing the steps along the way, that’s the way to find happiness. Ultimately, many people find that “accomplishing the goal” isn’t where happiness lies; it’s in achieving the many small steps along the way: learning, making mental connections, meeting new people and learning things you never expected to, and so on.

Obviously, if you want to be an oceanographer, Red Deer may not be the best place for that beyond basic education that can be achieved anywhere, just like the middle of the ocean wouldn’t be the best place for a devoted woodsman to pursue an avocation in the woods. But if you change goals like other people change their socks, then you probably won’t be happy anywhere, unless your goals are very modest indeed. And it’s true that for some people with limited capacity for achievement, but realization of the limitations and the ability to set realistic goals that they can achieve, happiness can be found nearly anywhere.

I know some grocery baggers at supermarkets in my area who have severe mental handicaps, but they do what they do, they do it well enough to maintain employment, and they always seem to be cheerful when I deal with them. On the other hand, some people I know who are true geniuses seem to always butt their heads against unyielding walls, and rail about things that are completely outside of their sphere of influence, “The company should do this or that or the other thing …” when it’s not their place to set or directly influence policy – and they’ll never find happiness that way.

Set a goal, make a plan, make a checklist of steps to back up the plan, and start taking those steps. That’s the only way to happiness that I have ever heard about. It starts with a goal.

Happiness doesn’t come from a place or a job or anything like that. It comes from inside our hearts. I hope you find it.

I’m happy where I am. There are opportunities wherever we are. We just have to be open-minded enough to see them and brave enough to take advantage of them.

The thing about going some place to be happy, to do a geographic as it is called in recovery programs, is that everywhere you go, there you are!

One can’t get away from oneself. If you know what will make you satisfied and feel complete, and it needs to be somewhere else, fine. Work towards relocating to pursue a dream.

But if you go on fluther to ask suggestions, then it becomes apparent that you aren’t quite sure what would make you any happier than where you are now. So take the quiz that @dammitjanetfromvegas suggests, and get some insight. Then you can list some criteria in what you want to find, and we will offer suggestions.

You should try the one that lies on the other side of your front door.

I think most people would be happier in a place that is warm most of the year, but I don’t see how you could move out of Canada. If I remember correctly you use quite a bit of their social services, and you would have trouble getting those benefits as an immigrant.

You might consider BC, but I wouldn’t move east. I’m thinking of the weather mostly. BC might be more mild. It partly depends on the elevation I guess? I don’t know the geography, topography, and climate very well, just the basics.

I did a Web search for Red Deer, which I had never heard of before. It has a population of over 90,000, which makes it a decent sized town. I would think there should be plenty of opportunities for education, employment and socializing. I checked the community events calendar and came across this Are you familiar with it? It may be worth checking into.

You have two choices to find what makes you happy. Stay where you are or travel. But remember: Wherever you go, there you are.

This seems right up your alley, Colin. It’s the Centre for Spiritual Living, on Horn Street.

27 meetups coming up. Including Guided Meditation and a newcomer-friendly men’s group on The Gentle Art of Self-Care

It would be incredibly positive for you to find a place to go regularly, to socialize with real people. Moving house is a stressful experience. Try making positive steps in your own area.

I will say that you will not find the support in the US that you currently have in Canada, so I would discourage you entirely from crossing the border.

Yep, what @Pachy says. Where ever you go, there you are. If you’re not happy now a change of geography won’t make much difference.

This is not something we can really help you with because you have smaller steps to take first. A change of environment can help but you seem to lack initiative to force even small changes. The first is reaching out for advice so you are doing that, next is deciding what advice if any is best for you to follow and then follow it. So far @seek has given you the best so if I were you I would start there.

The answer must be tied up in that “get ahead” thing. If you’re living in cirumstances where you don’t stuggle to make ends meet, I think you are probably better off than you may suspect

I like Seek’s advice the best too. Find what you can do where you are.

Merely changing your location isn’t going to bring you whatever it is you want. And the problem is, as far as I can tell, is that you seem to have no idea what you want beyond vague notions of “happiness”. For example: in the time I’ve been on the forum I’ve seen you jump from one idea for a possible career path to another almost daily. What do you want? Really. What is it that you want to do with your life? And no, that’s not a question for me, it’s a question for you. Don’t answer me, but rather figure out the answer for yourself. Figure out, once and for all, what you really want to do with your life. Once you’ve truly figured that out for yourself then you can figure out how to go about getting there (which may or may not need a change of location).

I find it difficult to believe that there are no opportunities for you where you live. Rather it seems like you will not step outside your door to try to pursue opportunities. Living in the largest city in the world with the most amount of opportunities (whatever they may be) isn’t going to make a bit of difference if all you do is sit in your apartment and watch videos on YouTube.

I have done the moving thing thinking a change of location will sort out my problems. It has always made it worse. It takes me about 60 seconds when I move to a new place to justify the behavior I was trying to escape.

This new place is bonkers.. have a beer to round the edges… Right back where I started…

Dude, I think you are a great guy with tons of potential but I have been reading your stuff for years and you show no interest in doing any of the hundreds of answers giving you ideas to sort your shit out.

I wish you the best but I am at a loss.

TRAVEL.

Travel the world as much as you can with the capital at your disposal.

Do it. Do it now. Before you are elderly or the world blows up.

Then decide. You have but one life.

Definitely I have to say San Francisco!

It´s veggie-friendly, and with the vegan paradise that is Berkeley right across the bay, herbivores will never run out of dining options.

Its organic! The city by the bay was voted the number-one best city to live the organic foodie lifestyle by the online magazine Organic Authority. This is great!!

It has beeeautiful public parks like Golden Gate Park link and the Presidio, and Dolores Park.

And of course it´s gay-friendly, the San Franciscans respect different kinds of living, and there is anything more super cool then be around people who let other live fully and in peace.

@martijacobs

I agree with your opinion of SF and Berkeley, but isn’t living in either of them very expensive?

It seems to me about the only affordable place to live in the bay area is Oakland.

I’m not sure a “vegan paradise” would suit this OP.

@janbb Correct. Maybe I should go to Texas and feast on beef ribs.

@RedDeerGuy1 Yes, I think that would suit you better,

@janbb I would have to have a career/job before I leave. Alberta is like Texas and has good beef. If I can fit in better than its a good idea.

@Brian1946 Oakland is no longer affordable. Too many tech hipsters who couldn’t find a place in SF have landed in Oakland.

I’m not sure if you’d be happier elsewhere in Canada. Depends on what kind of weather you like. I think we’re all basically the same as Canadians except for Newfoundlanders who seem to have their own happy island life thing going on.

Canada is Canada. Maybe Alberta is more right-wing. It’s hard to say because the NDP is now in power in Alberta. I hear a lot of anti-Trudeau sentiments coming from Alberta though.

I live in Ontario and I’d like to live in other provinces just to see them and see if it’s any different living in BC versus Ottawa. The weather would be a lot better but you’d basically have the same culture.