Choosing Happiness

There seems to be a theme to all the books I’ve been reading lately. Happiness. It’s not that I’m an unhappy person. I have a deep curiosity about how happiness impacts our lives. And what it takes to feel true happiness.

As much of the research shows, success does not yield happiness. Being highly compensated or reaching that next level job isn’t what brings happiness. As engagement, or disengagement, scores show, people are looking for meaningful work, to feel connection and that what they do matters. And we’ve all heard ‘money doesn’t matter’, or ‘do what you love, and the money will follow’. But then why are we all still searching for happiness. Why is there angst and disengagement in the workplace and at our schools.

My question really is – do we really know what makes us happy? And can we choose to just be happy?

Now, I’m not questioning the research. I do believe that if we are happy, we will see our success. We will recognize and value our achievements. We won’t compare what we do to others, for what makes each of us happy is different and can’t be compared. I’m just curious if we each can define what makes us happy. That is the bigger challenge. We get caught in the circle of ‘if I just had this, then I’d be happy’, be that money, significant other, good grades, different job, or whatever.  

When we think about what makes us happy, we’re really talking about our well-being: the physical, psychological, financial, social, and emotional aspects of our lives. Once we can recognize the choice we have about those aspects and make decisions to impact those, then we may be able to choose to be happy.

So raise a glass half-full, and toast to happiness and well-being. We’ll be leading a better life.