The question of happiness has been
explored for many years. You can even
trace it back to the ancient Greeks
when philosopher pondered the
question of what it means to live the
good life. You can find discussions of
happiness in old Buddhist texts as well.
Fast-forward to modern times and we're
still asking those questions. There's no
question that we want to be happy. In
fact, the Declaration of
Independence points out that the
"universal right" is the pursuit of
happiness. But what is happiness, really?
No doubt you've talked and thought about
the concept of happiness many time,s but
how would you define it?
Well it's clear that we're talking about
an emotion--and a positive one, of course.
Some sources define happiness as an
emotional state of well-being defined by
positive or pleasant emotions ranging
from contentment to intense joy.
Psychologists have identified several
important contributors to happiness. One
of these inputs is something called the
"happiness set point." This is a person's
general tendency to feel happiness, which
is determined by things like genetics
and birth variables. The second input is
"life circumstances." These include things
like one's marital status and income--
general variables that exist in one's
life. And finally, there are "intentional"
or "voluntary activities" -- choices we make
and behaviors we can control. These are
the things that we'll talk about in this
course -- things that we can do to directly
influence our happiness. As a point of
reference, in her book, "The How of
Happiness," Sonia Lyubomirsky suggests that
about 50% of our happiness is determined
by our set point, and only about 10% is
determined by life circumstances. But the
remaining 40% comes down to the choices
we make. This means that a substantial
amount of our emotional well-being is
under our control, and that's what you're
gonna learn in this course! Next up, let's
take a look at some of the benefits of
happiness to show that this controllable
set of choices
that we make every day not only makes us
happier but can make us more successful
as well.
