what research has discovered:

1. Don’t confuse stuff with success. Research has shown that having “personal” Free Stuff such as friends and family is TEN times more important to happiness levels.


2. The NEED for support or the number of problems individuals face is a less strong predictor of their happiness than the amount of support available to them. Don’t face your problems alone. Sharing provides perspective and . Studies show that those who share their situation tend to have a 55% reduction in worry over time but those who did not share showed NO improvement.
 

3. Those with a loved pet are 22% more likely to feel satisfied than those without.
 

4. Take care not to harshly criticize family and friends. Make any criticism reflect your love and respect, not your disappointment. Aggression and grudges reduce satisfaction in relationships by nearly 70%.
 

5. Don’t deal with fault, deal with outcomes. Those who find blame – either themselves or others – are 43% LESS likely to be satisfied.
 

6. Research on the effect of the spiritual on life satisfaction found that those who had strongly held spiritual beliefs were typically satisfied with life while those who had no spiritual beliefs typically were unsatisfied.
 

7. People who keep a notebook handy feel like they are in more control and are 37% happier than those who feel like their best ideas escape them.
 

8. Do what you say you are going to do. Amount of conflict does not bear on happiness: instead it is a greater commitment to following through on agreed-upon changes that contributes to the success of relationships and the 23% greater happiness of the individuals involved.


9. When happy people consciously choose to think back on their past (even those with traumatic backgrounds) over 80% tend to focus on VERY positive memories. Those who believe they always have a choice are three times more likely to feel satisfied than those who do not.
 

10. In research on working women, even for those working in the SAME kinds of jobs, the women who saw it as a positive experience and felt in control of their lives had 28% more life satisfaction.
 

11. People who are happy don’t get everything they want but they want most of what they get. They rig the game in their favour by choosing to value things that are within their grasp. People who believe their goals are out of reach are less than one-TENTH as likely to consider themselves satisfied with life.


12. If your goals are in conflict your life may not work. For example someone who has a job he loves that involves a lot of travel but who also REALLY wants to spend time with his family has two major goals that are NOT in alignment. In a ten year study, life satisfaction was associated with the consistency of life goals. Goals regarding career, education, family and geography were each important and together add up to about 80% of satisfaction. These goals need to be consistent with one another to produce positive conclusions regarding goal achievement.


13. Taking all your needs and priorities into account when you choose your goals increases happiness levels by at least 20%. In long term interviews with a group of US attorneys, a distinct transition was noted as career became less important and family more important. Those who recognized the change and reorganized their priorities accordingly expressed 29% more life satisfaction than those who did not.
 

14. People who feel they lack morals report they are HALF as likely to feel happy. People who compromise what they believe in to satisfy their goals wind up dissatisfied with their accomplishments.
 

15. Age is not related to levels of personal happiness. Older people are as happy as younger people.
 

16. Studies of older people find that one of the best predictors of happiness is whether a person considers their life to have a meaning. Without a clearly defined meaning, 7 out of 10 feel unsettled about their lives; WITH a meaning, 7 out of 10 feel satisfied.
 

17. Television changes our view of the world and can encourage us to develop highly unrealistic and often damaging conclusions that reduce life satisfaction by up to 50%.
 

18. Enjoy what you have. People who are satisfied appreciate what they have in life and don’t worry about how it compares to what others have. People who have the least are just as likely to be happy as those who have the most. People who like what they have, however, are TWICE as likely to be happy as those who actually have the most.


19. Enjoy the ordinary. Enjoy what you do every day. In a study of over 13,000 people, 96% of subjects rated their satisfaction with life typically no higher than “fairly positive”. The satisfied life was not one of extremes but of steady, generally positive feelings.


20. Those who regularly brood over negative things are 70% less likely to be happy.


21. Having a positive attitude about those around us is among the most important predictors of happiness. Agreeable people are twice as happy as those who are angry or disruptive just because they can.


22. A positive effect on mood was found for 92% when we listen to the music of our choice. Excitement and happiness are typical reactions to the music. So listen to music.
 

23. Nearly all individuals report significant changes in their lives and in their values over time. Those who considered these changes as inevitable and remain open to the possibility that changes would be positive were 35% more likely to be satisfied with their lives than those who did not.
 

24. Those who recognize that their limited time is a conflict without an easy solution are 25% more likely to feel comfortable with themselves than those who do not. The lesson is not to dwell on conflicts we cannot win.
 

25. Satisfaction with life is no more likely among the rich. A study of life satisfaction looked at 20 different factors that might contribute to happiness. 19 of those factors did matter and one did not. The one factor that did not matter was financial status.
 

26. A lot of us believe that happiness is hard to explain or that it depends on being rich. Research has actually identified that the core factors in a happy life are number of friends, closeness of friends, closeness of family, and relationships with co-workers and neighbors. Together these explain about 70% of personal happiness.
 

With thanks to “The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People” by David Niven

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