Can you control your happiness?
Through studies with identical twins separated at birth, scientists have discovered that about 50% of our happiness is determined by our genetics and that we have a "happiness set point"—a level of happiness we tend to gravitate toward.
What this means is that when good or bad things happen to people, they tend to get back to their "happiness set point" quite quickly after the happy or sad event.
Surprising right?
Another 10% (ONLY!!) of our happiness is determined by our life circumstances. Most of us spend so much energy on trying to change our life circumstances but research shows that increasing our wealth, living situation etc. etc. and stuff like that has both a negligible and a temporary impact on our well-being. WOW!
What about the rest of the 40%?
Sonja Lyubomirsky, one of the most respected researchers in this field and the author of the brilliant book, The How of Happiness believes that a full 40% of our happiness is fully within our control and depends upon how we behave, what we think, and what goals we set every day of our life. 'There is no happiness without action', she says.
Seems like we would be better off trying to focus on the 40% of our happiness that we can improve through our actions and attitudes rather than focusing all our efforts on trying to change our life circumstances.
Don't you think?
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