What is Happiness Really?

Jan 14

What is happiness?  And…. what is success? Do the two go together? Anyone that knows me knows I don’t like the word “happy”. Not because I don’t like happy or happiness but because to me it’s not a real word. You can’t really define it in terms that fit everyone. Think about it– what does happy really mean to each person? It is something different and very much personal. 

A child in a South American small town with no luxuries of life is or can be happy when you meet them. But that same child in America may not be happy. The woman who is alone may be happy but to another woman she is lonely. The word is very subjective. 

It’s easy to simplify happiness and claim that it’s obvious that successful people are happy. They link the two things together.  However, if you really interviewed 100 successful people, you may be surprised that a large percentage of them are not as happy as you think they ought to be. The fact is, you can be a millionaire, have a wonderful spouse, great kids, and everything you think you want and still not be happy.  Heck you can be a billionaire and still not be happy. The truth is happiness fuels success.

Let’s look a little closer at happiness and what it can do: 

• Happiness Leads to More Productivity – When people are happy with the work, they tend to be willing to do it a lot more, even for free. Assuming other needs (food, shelter, health) are met a happy person can find joy doing the most mundane things because they can focus on outcomes instead of just what they are doing.
• Happiness Leads to Higher Profits – In companies that keep their employees happy by offering a living wage, benefits, and a flexible schedule the profits tend to be a lot higher. One reason is that when a person feels respected in their job even if the work is hard, they are happier about doing it.
• Happiness Leads to Stability – When people are happy, they tend to be a lot more stable, stick to tasks longer, and are more likely to complete an assignment. In addition, they tend to job hop a lot less. This is one reason smart employers know that by making work a happy place they can reduce turn over.
• Happiness Leads to a Higher Work Ethic – Most people think of work ethic as something you must suffer to experience, but for happy people, they tend to stick to their jobs longer and work even harder. The main reason is that they have the energy to do it and can envision the outcomes more positively.
• Happiness Is Not About Wealth – Everyone knows someone who has plenty of money but is not happy and maybe even hateful. They seem to have everything but happiness. Because of this fact, it’s clear that being happy doesn’t always directly correlate to the circumstances you find yourself in regarding your bank account balance.
• Happiness Colors the Lens by Which You See Life – The surprising truth about happiness is that if you practice happiness it will begin to affect how you see everything in the world. You’ll be able to pick out the most positive things no matter the situation.
• Happiness is About Today – Happiness is really all about today and the right now.  If you’re happy today, you’re more likely to eat right, move more, get your work done, and do everything well. Naturally, that is going to affect the future too.
• Happiness is a Mindset – It’s hard to imagine it is true, but it is. Happiness is about your mindset. Thankfully, with work, you can train your mindset to be happier and more positive despite your current circumstances. Happiness is what you think it is and what you make it. 

While bad things do happen to good people and can bring them down, the truth is, happiness can be experienced by most anyone regardless of where they are in life right now in terms of their success. It just requires that you accept that you can be happy, right now, without anything changing while also developing plans to make changes.

Happiness is in the heart of the person before anything else affects your circumstances. So, choose to be happy.