Do you know what determines your happiness?

In my talks and workshops, there is inevitably a point where I have to pause while people absorb a particularly startling fact from happiness research. What is it that people find so shocking? It is what determines our happiness. [Hint: it’s not buying new shoes…]

Researchers have shown that:

50% of our happiness is based on our genes. The random set of genes you received from your biological parents defines your overall range of happiness. Some of us win the genetic lottery, are blessed with sunny dispositions, and naturally see the good in life. Others of us have a tendency toward pessimism and thinking that the glass is half empty. Some scientists describe this as a basic “set point” of happiness.

(Here’s the surprise) Only 10% of our happiness comes from external circumstances. Your financial resources, your career, the climate where you live, your health, if you have a life partner, how sexy you look – all of these things determine only 10% of your ongoing level of happiness. (Think how annoying this fact makes marketers trying to get us to buy our way to happiness!) Why? It is for adaptation. No matter what good or bad things happen to you – a promotion at work, a new car, marrying the love of your life – you adapt and after a while (often not very long) it doesn’t bring much emotional benefit. Think about the last time you worked hard for something or bought something you really wanted. How long did the buzz last? How long before those positive emotions were replaced by the desire for the next thing? In one well-documented study, researchers found that both lottery winners and people who had become paraplegics returned to their original baseline level of happiness within a year of the life-changing event. Striving to achieve and acquire, while a great way to pass the time, is not a path to sustainable increases in happiness.

Guess what? That remaining 40% of our Happiness comes from our intentional activity: what we do and how we think. Therefore, forty percent of our happiness is UNDER OUR CONTROL. Researchers have been actively testing which activities and thought patterns increase our happiness and which decrease it. Study after study has shown that as people integrate these activities into their lives and create new habits, they sustainably increase their happiness.

This is what excites me most about this job. That is why I write this newsletter, speak publicly and train my clients on this material. IS change possible. We can sustainably increase our own happiness, and many of these new habits and activities take just a few minutes a day.