Happiness?

The subject of happiness is an important and meaningful topic, yet many do not stop to ponder upon it deeply. After all, whats more important than happiness? Let's take a brief look at it today.

Successful entrepreneur / Marketing guru Seth Godin wrote on his blog yesterday:

"If your happiness is based on always getting a little more than you've got... then you've handed control over your happiness to the gatekeepers, built a system that doesn't scale and prevented yourself from the brave work that leads to a quantum leap. 

The industrial system (and the marketing regime) adore the mindset of 'a little bit more, please', because it furthers their power. A slightly higher paycheck, a slightly more famous college, an incrementally better car-- it's easy to be seduced by this safe, stepwise progress, and if marketers and bosses can make you feel dissatisfied at every step along the way, even better for them. 

Their rules, their increments, and you are always on a treadmill, unhappy today, imagining that the answer lies just over the next hill.... All the data shows us that the people on that hill are just as frustrated as the people on your hill. It demonstrates that the people at that college are just as envious as the people at this college. The never ending cycle (no surprise) never ends. 

An alternative is to be happy wherever you are, with whatever you've got, but always hungry for the thrill of creating art, of being missed if you're gone and most of all, doing important work."

Well said Mr. Godin. There's a specific reason to why Mr. Godin used the word treadmill. In writing his post, he instilled a prominent positive psychology theory called the Hedonic Treadmill. The theory states that regardless of positive or negative events in our lives, we have a tendency to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness. This is why research shows that lottery winners aren't happier than those who didn't win at all. 

The theory states that we all have a range of baseline happiness, and we will stay there regardless of these positive or negative events or life changes. Further research has also indicated that 50% of our level of happiness is determined by genes, 10% by external circumstances, and 40% by intentional activities. 

Buddhist philosophy strongly value mental attitude- they believe that our mental attitude determines our happiness. So I urge a new mindset to many of you who have not yet adopted it: We cannot change past circumstances, and in many cases, we cannot change the present circumstances. So in a circumstance like getting stuck in traffic- instead of trying to change the circumstance and have it it ruin your vibe, change the way you think and interpret it.  

Positive thinking and negative thinking are both intentional activities. You can choose what to interpret, what you pay attention to, and what you think about. Your thoughts influence your external circumstances, and you have power over your thoughts, so influence it wisely. An old but effective analogy is choosing to see a glass half empty versus seeing a glass half full. Realize that you don't have to see the glass half empty, and realize that many things in life can end up being a blessing in disguise. 

We can't control everything that is around us. But we can control how we think, feel, and respond. Good luck!

P.S Did you know that a Harvard B-School study found that spending money on others actually make us happier than spending it on ourselves? Hmmm... more of a reason to share =).