Happiness – factors that make a difference
Wealth
Money builds the basis for your happiness but don’t buy you happiness. If your basic needs are met, money seems not to make a big difference anymore. But they make a big difference to feed your fundamental needs.
Desire
We all think that one more thing to buy or achieve and will be happy. But this is a trick of sellers and advertisers. If you think this is what I need for a “good life”, you must be aware that the list of possessions for a good life will never reach the end. The “aspiration gap” may never close. If you don’t enjoy what you have you’ll not enjoy this new thing more than a very short time.
Intelligence
Smart people seem not to be happier, mostly because their expectations are higher and this requires a lot of effort. It seems that not IQ but emotional and social intelligence make a difference.
Genetics
Nearly 50% of our happiness level is genetically determined. Each of us is born with a “set point” of happiness, the level or point at which the happy state tends to stabilize, indifferent of what happened to us or we do. A low set point of happiness can be boost though for a short period.
Beauty
It seems that good-looking people are happier. But it depends very much on how you perceive your beauty. If you think you look great as you are, you’ll feel good in your skin.
Friendship
The quantity but mostly the quality of your friendships determines in a great measure your level of happiness. The extroverts tend to be a lot happier than introverts.
Marriage
Married people are happier than single ones. Here we have two directions: marriage makes you happy and at the same time happy people are more likely to get married. Strong family relationships have a great impact on your happiness.
Faith
Due to the meaning and purpose that idea of an afterlife give and social interaction and support religion bring the religious people tend to be happier than non-religious ones.
Even so, not all religious people are happy but those that are balanced. Weak believers and fundamentalists are less happy. Weak believers are less happy due to their inconsistency and doubts. Fundamentalists are always discontent with their religious performance. They want to be perfect.
Charity
The altruistic behaviors make you happy because when you help others your self-esteem increase.
Related posts:
Happiness isn’t only for rich people
Happiness – 50% genetics, 10% circumstances, 40% intentional activity
3 Ways to Finding Happiness
Modeling Happiness
Happiness and Goal Achievement