Review: The How Of Happiness (2)

It is good to know your present personal happiness level to estimate your happiness set point. For this the book provides some self-reports you can do like the “Subjective Happiness Scala”. You should repeat the report after 2 weeks because it is a heavily subjective report and the result depends on your current emotional state, your preceding events etc.. So it is best to take the average of several reports to get a better estimation.

There is also a “Depression Scale” in the book to determine your depression score. Sounds funny but it is a serious topic as the World Health Organization predicts that by the year 2020 depression will be the second-leading cause of mortality in the entire world, affecting 30 percent of all adults.

Some Happiness Myths

The following statements are generally accepted but they are wrong.

Happiness must be “Found”

Happiness is not out there, it is inside us. Happiness is more than anything a state of mind, a way of perceiving and approaching ourselves and the world in which we reside. So the right thing to do is to change and manage your state of mind.

Happiness lies in changing our circumstances

As mentioned in my first part of this review the circumstances control only about 10% of your happiness level. Changing the circumstances of our lives (like Material Wealth or Beauty) can make us happier but only for a small period of time. It is not lasting. There is a very interesting experiment described in the book:

They asked Americans in 1940 when one third of all homes did not have running water, indoor toilets or central heatings what their overall satisfaction of life is. They reported being “very happy” with an average score of 7.5 out of 10. The typical house today has not only running water, two or more baths, central heating but is twice the size with color TVs, DVD players, iPods, PCs etc.. Surprisingly the average score for Americans happiness today is 7.2!

You either have it or you don’t

Yes, some part of our happiness level is determined by our genes but it is possible to overcome our genetic programming.

Review: The How Of Happiness (1)

The How of Happiness

Currently I’m reading “The How Of Happiness – A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want” from Sonja Lyubomirsky a Ph. D. from the Stanford University. This post is part 1 of the review.

It is the first how-to-become-happier book authored by someone who has actually conducted research revealing how people can achieve a greater sense of happiness in their lives. The book starts with a very interesting question and a surprising answer.

What do you think would make you happier ?
- A relationship?
- An extra bedroom ?
- A baby?
- More money?
- More Time ?

If your answer looks anything like these you’re in for a surprise. None of these things will make you substantially happier. We often look for happiness in the wrong places. What we believe would make a huge difference in our lives, actually makes only a small difference, while we overlook the true sources of personal happiness and well-being. Why is it so hard for us to believe that money really doesn’t make us happy? Because the truth is that money does make us happy. BUT our misunderstanding is that “we think money will bring lots of happiness for a long time, and actually it brings a little happiness for a short time.”

The 40 Percent Solution
50% of the factors which determine happiness are the genetically Set Points. They can’t be changed and therefore they shouldn’t be in the focus. The smallest part by 10 % are the circumstances we live in. So life circumstances like house, money, etc. are not the keys to happiness. That means that the remaining 40 % is within our ability to control, the 40% for opportunities to increase or decrease our happiness levels through what we do in our daily lives and how we think. This is the interesting part and it is the main focus of the book.