Happiness

According to a CBC documentary, about 50% of happiness is genetically determined. About 10% of happiness is dictated by your life circumstances, such as whether your survival needs are being met, basic health care and basic survival. The other 40% is the result of your choices and your attitude.

What makes a person happy? It’s not money. We seem to get used to what we have, and start wanting more. Around $30,000 you pretty much have the means to kind of do the things that you typically need to do. Although our standard of living has increased dramatically in the last 50 years, happiness levels remain the same. A quote from a guest at CBC, ”Once you make more than that, you start thinking there are more things that you need to do to make your life more meaningful. So once you make $100,000 a year, it's no longer the trip to the Galapagos, now it ends up being a trip around the world. You end up keep on wanting more and more to sort of match that, and so the utility of the money keeps coming down. We also compare what we have to what others have. If we buy a new car, we're happy with it - but if a friend then buys a more expensive car, we tend to want a more expensive new car for ourselves.”

Having friends or close family is essential to being happy. They bring meaning to our lives. According to Todd Kashdan, "The most clearly potent source of happiness is satisfying, meaningful connections with other people. You just cannot get away from the importance of social relationships. And it's not the number, it's not the density. It's not having a cell phone filled with a hundred people that you can call. It's having people that you can confide in and people that you could effortlessly be yourself."

Ed Diener agrees. "All the research on lonely people shows that they don't live as long. They tend to be depressed more. All kinds of negative things - they have more problems of various sorts, more likely to commit suicide. Humans as a species are attached to other people, need to be with other people, and we're a social animal."
Studies have shown that people's happiness actually increases in the latter part of life. Todd Kashdan explains. "When you're younger, you're looking for status. You're looking for possessions, for power. You're looking to acquire knowledge. And when you get older, there's a shift in priorities. Usually at this point, most older adults know what makes them happy and what doesn't. So they're much more selective about what they do."