How to be happy

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I quite like this video, especially the bit about excessive introversion. I guess spending excessive time here on WP yaking about AS could be perceived as introversion?

Would we be happier going off and doing some of these recommendations? Instead of focusing on our shortcomings, or those of AS in general?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YAzAu3Ut6c[/youtube]

In short: Ignorance is bliss

Doing any of the things mentioned isn't exactly my idea of "happy".

I'm pretty happy in general. Neurochemistry clearly plays a huge role in happiness. When I take dexedrine I get unhappy. Belief system plays an equally large role.

I can usually find a way to feel happy in the day to day - I take great pleasure in small things.

But feeling fulfilled is another story.

A lot of it seems like common sense to me, but a couple of the things didn't make sense. Like buying the first thing you see that meets your needs and avoiding introspection. Introspection doesn't necessarily mean dwelling on negative things. It can be a means of understanding yourself so you can make things better. Plus, how can Morrissey make you unhappy? He's funny.

I liked the part about the distinction between pleasure and happiness though. I think a lot of people confuse them and don't understand why they're still unhappy. I take pleasure in sitting around playing games for weeks on end, but whenever I indulge in that I end up feeling unhappy.

Yes I see your point, it is also rather simplistic, one size fits all, and we are all very different.

Last night I needed to think about stuff so I went for a drive to the beach. Spent time on my thinking rock and then drove back near midnight. I then acted on my thoughts and moved on from that consideration.

I guess spending too much time on something is like a rut, and limits your potential to reach out to other new and exciting activities, as your locked onto the same old thing.

But being obsessional is fun for most aspies! As long as it is our special interest, which it usually is.

http://www.lifecho.com/happiness-geneti ... -activity/

Happiness is 50% genetic. So, if you want to be happy, make sure you choose your parents wisely!

I'm happiest while in motion.

I'm happiest when in a commotion.

heh.

from pdf http://www.lifecho.com/files/happiness.pdf if you open the pdf (0.2mb) you get some good graphs that wouldnt past here


Global Equity Strategy
If you are after specific investment advice, stop reading now. We
seek to explore one of Adam Smith’s obsessions: what it means to
be happy. We also discuss why that’s important to investors, and
how we can seek to improve our own levels of happiness. The list
below shows our top ten suggestions for improving happiness.
• Don’t equate happiness with money. People adapt to income shifts
relatively quickly, the long lasting benefits are essentially zero.
• Exercise regularly. Taking regular exercise generates further energy,
and stimulates the mind and the body.
• Have sex (preferably with someone you love). Sex is consistently
rated as amongst the highest generators of happiness. So what are you
waiting for?
• Devote time and effort to close relationships. Close relationships
require work and effort, but pay vast rewards in terms of happiness.
• Pause for reflection, meditate on the good things in life. Simple
reflection on the good aspects of life helps prevent hedonic adaptation.
• Seek work that engages your skills, look to enjoy your job. It
makes sense to do something you enjoy. This in turn is likely to allow
you to flourish at your job, creating a pleasant feedback loop.
• Give your body the sleep it needs.
• Don’t pursue happiness for its own sake, enjoy the moment. Faulty
perceptions of what makes you happy, may lead to the wrong pursuits.
Additionally, activities may become a means to an end, rather than
something to be enjoyed, defeating the purpose in the first place.
• Take control of your life, set yourself achievable goals.
• Remember to follow all the rules.
17 June 2004 Global Equity Strategy
2
If it makes you happy
With apologies to Monty Python, this weekly is perhaps best summed up as “And now
for something completely different”. We have a reputation (admittedly deservedly) for
being bearish. Indeed, on occasions, we even manage to depress ourselves. However,
as professional pessimists it behoves us to be happy in other aspects of our lives.
Those of you who are amongst our regular readers may recall that Albert Edwards has
documented his own search for happiness with a weekly concerning his exploits at
speed dating (see Global Strategy Weekly, 15 January 2004).
Albert’s adventures have inspired me to, once again, drag the psychological literature.
The psychological study of well-being and happiness is still a relatively new field.
However, despite its relative youth, the field has already delivered some powerful
insights and advice.
But before we get to these, let’s start at the beginning. Why be happy? The
psychological literature shows that effectively the benefits of happiness can be broken
down into three areas. These may seem like a long list of the blindingly obvious, but all
are based on careful scientific studies (rather than cheap self help books!). 1
i) Social rewards
a. Higher odds of marriage
b. Lower odds on divorce
c. More friends
d. Stronger social support
e. Richer social interactions
ii) Superior work outcomes
a. Greater creativity
b. Increased productivity
c. Higher quality of work
d. Higher income
e. More activity, more energy
iii) Personal benefits
a. Bolstered immune system
1 Anyone wanting more on the benefits of happiness is referred to the massive volume of work carried
out by Professor Lyubomirsky (http://faculty.ucr.edu/~sonja)
17 June 2004 Global Equity Strategy
3
b. Greater longevity
c. Greater self control and coping abilities
So let’s assume that you share the desire to enjoy this list of happiness-induced
benefits (and I’d be surprised if anyone had issues with any of these benefits), how do
you go about becoming happy?
Percentage of Americans describing themselves as very happy
Source: NOCR
In order to understand how we can improve our level of happiness we need to
understand its components. The latest research suggests that happiness is composed
of three sections2.
The largest contributor to happiness is the genetically determined set point (or more
accurately set range). That is to say, people are pre-disposed to a certain level of
happiness, which is determined by characteristics inherited from their parents! As
Sheldon et al note “The set point likely reflects immutable interpersonal,
temperamental and affective personality traits, such as extraversion, arousability and
negative affectivity, that are rooted in neurobiology, ...are highly heritable... and
change little over the lifespan.”
Adam Smith, author of the Wealth of Nations, also wrote the Theory of Moral
Sentiments, a text far closer to understanding the nature of human beings than the
better known favourite of economists3. Smith noted “The mind of every man, in a
longer or shorter time, returns to its natural and usual state of tranquillity. In prosperity,
after a certain time, it falls back to that state; in adversity, after a certain time, it rises
up to it”.
Current estimates suggest that this genetically determined set range accounts for
around 50% of an individual’s happiness. However, the set point is only the base line
2 Sheldon, Lyubomirsky and Schkade (2003) Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable
Change
3 Indeed a new paper by Ashraf, Camerer, and Loewenstein (2004) argues that Adam Smith was
actually one of the first behavioural economists. They cite the Theory of Moral Sentiments as a good
example of how insightful Smith really was.
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
34
36
38
40
1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
17 June 2004 Global Equity Strategy
4
or default level of happiness that an individual enjoys. It is the level of happiness that
an individual would have in the absence of other factors. Because the set point is
generally fixed, it is not something we can alter in order to improve our happiness lot.
This, of course, means that in order to increase our happiness we need to look
elsewhere.
The second component of happiness is circumstances. Life circumstances include
demographic factors, age, gender, ethnicity and geographic factors. It also includes
personal history and life status. Frequently people focus upon the last element of this
feature.
Indeed, amongst the most commonly reported correlates of happiness are marital
status, occupation, job security, income, health and religious affiliations. In general,
married, well paid, secure, healthy and religious believers are more likely to report
themselves as being happy than the rest of us.
That said, a vast array of individuals seriously over-rate the importance of money in
making themselves, and others, happy. Indeed, it seems to me that an awful lot of
individuals within our industry tend to equate money with happiness.
However, study after study from psychology shows that money doesn’t equal
happiness. For instance, Loewenstein (1996) asked visitors to Pittsburgh International
Airport to rank from 1 (most important) to 5 (least important) a list of “things that might
be important when it comes to making people happy”. They were then asked to assign
percentages as to the importance of each factor in determining overall happiness. The
table below shows the mean ranking and percentage weights that respondents
assigned to each variable. High income received the lowest ranking and rating.
Rankings and ratings of happiness factors
Item Mean rank Mean points
Family Life 1.7 37
Friends 2.4 22
Satisfying job 2.5 26
High income 3.6 15
Source: Loewenstein
A similar finding is contained by Diener and Oishi (2000)4 who surveyed some 7167
students across 41 countries. Those who valued love more than money reported far
higher life satisfaction scores than those who seemed to be money focused. (See chart
p5).
However, for all the emphasis that gets put upon life circumstances as a generator of
happiness, the correlations between such variables as money, job security, marriage
etc and happiness are relatively small. In fact, Sheldon et al argue that in total all
circumstances account for only around 10% of the variations in people’s happiness.
4 Diener, E and Oishi, S (2000) Money and Happiness: Income and subjective well-being across
nations
17 June 2004 Global Equity Strategy
5
Money ≠ happiness
Source: Diener and Oishi (2000)
There is an additional problem with changing life circumstances as a path to increasing
happiness. It goes by the frightening name of hedonic adaptation5. Simply put, hedonic
adaptation means we are very good at quickly assimilating our current position, and
then judging it as normal, hence only changes from our “normal” level get noticed.
Gains in happiness quickly become the norm. So changing life circumstances seems
to lead to only temporary improvement in people’s happiness. This helps explain the
chart on p3, which shows that since the 1950s people’s happiness levels have been
remarkably constant, despite a massive growth in income per head over the same time
horizon.
Schkade and Kahneman (1998) 6 show that whilst “living in California” was an
appealing idea for many Americans, it didn’t actually boost long run happiness. That is
to say, people living in California were about as happy as other Americans on average.
So whilst moving may provide a temporary increase in happiness, it is soon adapted
into the perception of the “norm”.
Hence hedonic adaptation severely limits the ability of changing life circumstances to
improve long run happiness. So neither life circumstances nor the set point seem to
hold the key to creating sustainable increases in happiness.
All of which means that any hope for increasing happiness on a long term basis must
lie with the third and final component of happiness – intentional activity. Sheldon et al
define intentional activity as “discrete actions or practices that people can choose to
do”. By process of elimination, intentional activity must account for 40% of people’s
happiness.
5 Frederick and Loewenstein, Hedonic Adaptation in Well- Being: The foundations of hedonic
Psychology, ed. Kahneman, Diener and Schwarz (1999)
6 Schkade and Kahneman (1998) Does living in California make people happy?, Psychological
Science, 9
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Life satisfaction
Importance scores
Money Love
17 June 2004 Global Equity Strategy
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Contributions to happiness
Source: Sheldon et al (2003)
Intentional activity can be (somewhat artificially) broken down into three areas:
Behavioural activities – such as exercising regularly, having sex7, being kind to others,
and spending time socialising.
Cognitive activities – such as trying to see the best, pausing to count how lucky one
actually is.
Volitional activities – striving for personal goals, devoting effort to meaningful causes.
Unlike changing life circumstances, intentional activity is likely to be more resistant to
hedonic adaptation. The very nature of activities means they are episodic, and hence
are unlikely to become part of the “norm” in the way alterations to circumstances do.
Because activities are not permanent they can be varied which again helps prevent
hedonic adaptation. For instance, in taking exercise the particular activity can easily be
altered from cycling to swimming.
Cognitive activities such as pausing to think about the good things in one’s life can also
help counteract the hedonic adaptation process directly. After all, counting one’s
blessing helps to prevent them from becoming part of the “norm”.
Of course, just like New Year’s resolutions, happiness increasing strategies are
relatively easy to devise, but far harder to implement on a consistent basis. A
deliberate effort is required to pursue activities. However, an individual has much more
chance of being able to start an activity than say change the set point or alter life
circumstances. So just how can we seek to improve our intentional activities to
enhance happiness? Well the list below is drawn from my reading of the literature, all
of these have withstood laboratory testing in a scientific environment.
7 In Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz and Stone (2003) Measuring the quality of life, the authors
found that among a sample of 1000 employed women that sex was rated retrospectively as the activity
that produces the largest amount of happiness. Commuting turns out to be the least pleasurable
activity. Also Blanchflower and Oswald (2004) Money, Sex and Happiness, find that sexual activity
enters strongly into happiness equations.
Intentional
Activity 40%
Circumstances 10%
Set point
50%
17 June 2004 Global Equity Strategy
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The top ten list for improving happiness (in no particular order)
1) Don’t equate happiness with money. People adapt to income shifts
relatively quickly, the long lasting benefits are essentially zero.
2) Exercise regularly. Regular exercise is an effective cure for mild depression
and anxiety. It also stimulates more energy, and is good for the mind and
body.
3) Have sex (preferably with someone you love). Need I say more?
4) Devote time and effort to close relationships. Confiding and discussing
problems and issues is good for happiness, so work on these relationships.
5) Pause for reflection, meditate on the good things in life. Focusing on the
good aspects of life helps to prevent hedonic adaptation.
6) Seek work that engages your skills, look to enjoy your job. Doing well at
work creates happiness, and the easiest way of doing well at work, is doing a
job you enjoy.
7) Give your body the sleep it needs. Too many people have a sleep deficit,
resulting in fatigue, gloomy moods and lack of concentration.
Don’t pursue happiness for its own sake, enjoy the moment. Because
people don’t understand what makes them happy, pursuing happiness can be
self-defeating. Additionally, if people start to aim for happiness they are doing
activities for happiness’s sake rather than actually enjoying the activity itself.
9) Take control of your life, set yourself achievable goals. People are
happiest when they achieve their aims, so set yourself goals which stretch
you, but are achievable.
10) Remember to follow rules 1-9. Following these guidelines sounds easy, but
actually requires willpower and effort.
Let’s leave the last words to Adam Smith (quoted in Adam Smith, Behavioural
Economist by Ashraf et al (2004) from the Theory of Moral Sentiments):
Through the whole of his life he pursues the idea of a certain artificial and
elegant repose which he may never arrive at, for which he sacrifices a
real tranquillity that is at all times in his power, and which, if in the
extremity of old age he should at last attain to it, he will find to be in no
respect preferable to that humble security and contentment which he had
abandoned for it. It is then, in the last dregs of life, his body wasted with
toil and disease, his mind galled and ruffled by the memory of a thousand
injuries and disappointments which he imagines he has met with from the
injustice of his enemies, or from the perfidy and ingratitude of his friends,
that he begins at last to find that wealth and greatness are mere trinkets
of frivolous utility, no more adapted for procuring ease of body or
tranquillity of mind, than the tweezer-cases of the lover of toys.

Last edited by Surfman on 27 Apr 2011, 1:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

hehe.

Motion is relative. But then again, so is happiness. Which is why I think it's a dumb concept, but hey, that's just my opinion.

Transcript plz? I am at dial-up speed.

N.B.: Dial-up speed is not the path to happiness.

That's a great video. Thank you for posting it.

There are lots of ways to make ourselves happy. Sometimes we forget what it is that we have to do to get there.