How to Be Happy
So happiness - isn't that the thing that all of us strive to find and keep? Nobody is happy all of the time, but some people are definitely more fulfilled than others. Studies on what makes people happy reveal that it doesn't have much to do with material goods or high achievement; it seems to whittle down to your outlook on life, and the quality of your relationships with the people around you. To be happy you should know what to love and how much.
Steps:
1
Be optimistic. In the 1970s,
researchers followed people who'd won the lottery and found that a year after
they'd hit the jackpot, they were no happier than the people who didn't. They
called it hedonic adaptation, which suggests that we each have a baseline level
of happiness. No matter what happens, good or bad, the effect on our happiness
is only temporary and we tend to rebound to our baseline level. Some people
have a higher baseline happiness level than others, and that can be attributed
in part to genetics, but it's also largely influenced by how you think. So
while the remainder of this article will help boost your happiness, only
improving your attitude towards life will increase your happiness permanently.
Here are some excellent starting points for doing that:
2
Follow your gut. In one study, two
groups of people were asked to pick out a poster to take home. One group was
asked to analyze their decision carefully, weighing the pros and cons, and the
other group was told to listen to their gut. Two weeks later, the group that
followed their gut was happier with their posters than the group that analyzed
their decisions. Now, some of our decisions are more crucial than picking out
posters, but by the time you're poring over your choice, the options you're
weighing are probably very similar, and the difference will only temporarily
affect your happiness. So next time you have a decision to make, and you're
down to two or three options, just pick the one that feels right, and go with
it.
3
Make enough
money to meet your basic needs: food, shelter, and clothing. In the US, that magic number is $40,000 a year. Any money you make
beyond that will have negligible effects on your happiness. Remember the
lottery winners mentioned earlier? Oodles of money didn't make them any
happier, and it won't make you any happier. Once you make enough money to support your basic needs, your happiness
is not significantly affected by how much money you make, but by your level of
optimism.Your comfort may increase with your salary, but comfort isn't what
makes people happy. It makes people bored. That's why
it's important to push beyond your comfort zone to fuel your growth as a
person.
4
Stay close
to friends and family. Or move to where other members are-
so you can see them more. We live in a mobile society, where people follow jobs
around the country and sometimes around the world. We do this because we think
increases in salary will make us happier, but the fact is that our relationships
with our friends and family have a far greater impact on our happiness than our
jobs do. So next time you think about relocating, consider that you'd need a
salary increase of over $100,000 USD to compensate for the loss of happiness
you'd have from moving away from your friends and family.[4] But if your
relationships with your family and friends are unhealthy or nonexistent, and
you are bent on moving, choose a location where you'll be making about the same
amount of money as everyone else; according to research, people feel more
financially secure (and happier) when they're on similar financial footing as
the people around them, regardless of what that footing is.
5
Find
happiness in the job you have now. Many people expect the
right job or the right career to dramatically change their level of happiness,
but happiness research makes it clear that your level of optimism and the
quality of your relationships eclipse the satisfaction you gain from your job.
If you have a positive outlook, you will make the best of any job, and if you
have good relationships with people, you won't depend on your job to give your
life a greater sense of meaning. You'll find it in your interactions with the
people you care about. Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't aspire towards a job
that will make you happier; it means you should understand that the capacity of
your job to make you happy is quite small in comparison to your outlook on life
and your relationships with people.
6
Smile. Science suggests that when
you smile, whether you feel happy or not, your mood will be elevated. So smile
all the time!
