Happiness is ....

Happiness seems to be a popular topic these days on the airwaves. I’ve heard some interesting statistics:
• Per a Harvard study, most people would rather live in a community where they make $50,000 and everyone else makes $25,000 than make $100,000 and everyone else makes $200,000. Me too.
• Per 60 Minutes, Danes are the happiest people in the world. They attribute this to low expectations; they don’t feel pressure to improve their lot in life.
• The happiest groups of people are the very young and those over 50. I can attest to the over 50 but can’t remember the very young, though the grandchildren seem pretty happy.
• Serious illness does not negatively affect happiness beyond a couple of months with three exceptions … depression, acute pain and sleep disorder.
The one that resonated best with me was a CSPAN speech to the American Enterprise Institute. The author convincingly argued that happiness is best measured in a person’s feeling of their own earned success. Unearned success doesn’t lead to sustained happiness. Studies show that lottery winners, people who receive a large inheritance or welfare recipients get a short lived bump in happiness but then sink into depression, alcoholism and the like. They don’t enjoy spending the money. They didn’t earn it.
It is not just about money. Earned success can be measured in money but also in children you’ve taught, illness you’ve cured, people you’ve helped, the children you’ve raised, etc. When you feel good about yourself, that you have done something good; you will be grateful, you will care about other people more than yourself and you will be happy.