It's all about happiness:
Happiness is one of the hottest areas of the economic research at present and last month saw the UK
become the first nation in the world to officially record the happiness of its citizens. 200,000
questionnaires were issued with four simple questions:
- Overall, how satisfied with your life are you right now?
- Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
- Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?
- Overall to what extent do you feel things you do in your life are worthwhile?
What might the results tell us? Well, perhaps they'll tell us whether and why Manchunians are happier than
Liverpudlians. Perhaps they'll tell us whether and why people are happier in this job than that job. Perhaps they'll
even give us a peak at the underlying drivers of happiness.
What do we already know about happiness?
Whatever the results promise to deliver, they build on a multitude of studies in the 'pursuit of happiness'.
For instance we already know that whilst money isn't everything, we have to recognise that wealth remains
important to happiness - studies by the Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahreman show that day to day
emotional well-being rises with income and that low incomes exacerbate the emotional pain associated
with misfortunes such as ill-health.
We also know that relentless optimists - as annoying as they are - are better off than the rest. For example,
studies led by Michael Bond - the founder of Positive Psychology -
show that optimists are less likely to suffer
from e.g. cardio vascular disease or to catch flu.
Perhaps a surprise that has come out of the happiness research to date is that happy thoughts don't always makes us
happier. For example, in data collected from 5000 people across 83 countries, Daniel Gilbert - professor of psychology
at Harvard University - found that when someone's mind wonders they are less happy than when they are thinking
about what they are doing i.e. the task in hand. A few years ago, Gilbert also found that people are happier
with irreversible decisions than with reversible decisions because they rationalise the former not the latter.
Other things we already know to make us happy according to past data are friendship, health, money and sex.
How can we skilfully manage our own happiness?
Whilst turning emotional responses into empirical data may not tell us how best to choose between competing
versions of our lives - i.e. which decision will lead to the happiest outcome - it does give us a framework to
assess our own happiness and figure out what changes might ultimately improve it.
Based on the research to date, there appear to be five fundamental ways to skilfully manage our own
happiness.
- Actively pursue happiness.
Make the pursuit of happiness an explicit objective of how we live. For example, in Gretchin Rubin's books
The Happiness Project, Rubin tells us that she is not 'unhappy' per se but she knows she could be happier.
So she sets off on a 12 month mission to become happier, taking on one project a month that she expects will
bring her more happiness. It's a fantastic read for those of you looking for a new approach to happiness.
- Accept that happiness is ephemeral.
It comes and goes. No-one is happy all the time. So when you're in that unavoidable slump you need strategies
for managing the downside. For example, Sally Brampton in Shoot the Damn Dog talks about 'self-talk' - e.g. I'm crap at
this, I look awful, I'll never get promoted' - as being a potent and dangerous habit. She says that when self
doubt and sadness and pity creep in, she jumps up, pulls on the trackie bots and goes outside to take her
mind off things, get the adrenaline pumping and distract herself from the badness rather than letting that
voice inside get louder and louder. Perhaps this links to Gilbert's research around people being happier when
focussing on the task in hand, rather than when minds are wandering.
- Improve our Happiness Intelligence (HI).
When we're happy, we should write down the two or three biggest contributors asking 'why' one thing or another
makes us happy. This way we'll be able to identify patterns and either
do the things that make us happy when we're down or stop the things that make us sad when we're feeling happy.
The Gradvert Happiness Intelligence Model (printable version) is one way to heighten your own understanding. It says that you
need to satisfy five key elements to be happy. Why not rate yourself 1-5 on
each item and think about what you can do to improve your score in the lowest sections:
- Relationships: This is all about connectedness / attachment to people. It's about feeling part
of a community. It's about love and friendship.
- Control: This is about autonomy and influence. It's about being independent and in control of
your own actions, your own life.
- Impact: This is about feeling you can make a difference through your actions and that there
is value in what you do.
- Security:This is about feeling safe, emotionally and materially.
- Enjoyment: This is about getting a kick out of what you do day in day out; having fun...smiling.
Looking at the criteria, it's easy to see why work is so important to happiness - this is where we live and breathe each item for the largest part of the day!
- Sort out the niggles in our lives.
Fix that missing button, finish that outstanding piece of work, sort those online photo albums, make that long
overdue phone call. Every time we think about these niggles on our I-don't-want-to-do-that-'to-do-list' -
yes we all have one - they make us anxious, annoyed. So, take a decision to deal with them once and for
all, or take them off the list and give ourselves a break! Remember Gilbert's words of wisdom about irreversible
decision making us happier? Why not consider binning that top with the missing button if you're not really going to
fix it.
- Say yes.
One mistake we often make as human beings is we take what we know works from experience and repeat it again and
again. It's boring and it's risky - extending the past to the future limits us. Why not try the 'Yes Man'
game for a week. Say "yes" to every offer that comes your way and just go with it - open yourself up to new
experiences, new meetings, new places. Who knows what you might learn...
Has this inspired you? Drop me an email or give me a call to discuss your happiness:
lisa.bean@gradvert.com | 07969 075633 | www.gradvert.com
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