Is there a secret to happiness?

Is it really a secret?  Are there a select few that know this and are keeping it from the rest of the world?  

Is it the guy driving the new C65 Mercedes, or the family down the street in the big beautiful house, or perhaps the entrepreneur who is conquering the world through their social enterprise?

Hate to break it to you folks, there isn’t one.  Just like the ‘secret’ of losing weight there isn’t one it’s just that those selling the next product like us to think there is one.

So why are we happy sometimes and not all of the time?  Matthew Killingsworth PhD has been studying the science behind happiness to see if there is something undiscovered about happiness.  Part of his study asked the following questions to a large group of people throughout each day for an extended period.

How do you feel right now?

Do you have to do what you are doing? Y/N

To what extent are you being productive?

Do you want to do what you are doing right now? Y/N

Are you thinking about something other than that you are currently doing?

What would happen if you asked yourself this question every hour for a day or two?  Could you then measure how happy you are overall?

Perhaps then you could identify a pattern of what is the secret to your happiness?  Would you become more aware of what makes you happy?

Killingsworth research did reveal an unexpected outcome relating to the last question “Are you thinking about something other than what you are currently doing?”  Turns out  47% of the time people were thinking about something other than what they were currently doing.  In addition those people were substantially less happy when their minds were wandering. This is because when their minds wandered it was toward things that unpleasant things,  worries, anxieties and regrets.  

So perhaps there is a small secret – ssssshhhhh!  

People are universally more happy when they are fully engaged in an activity.

They are in the moment.