Merritt, currently your happiness baseline is 94, which is higher than 98 percent of the other people who took The Happiness Test. What this baseline means is that, taking both your high and low moods into account, your range of happiness, tends to be around this level.
As most of us know from first-hand experience, happiness is a changeable thing. In fact, you've probably felt your own overall happiness level shift from year to year, month to month, or even day to day. It's natural to experience highs and lows at different moments in your life. If you expect to feel the happiest of happy all of the time, you'll probably be disappointed. However, you can strive to elevate your baseline of happiness, so that the lows you experience are not as low, and the highs you experience are even higher.
A person's overall level of happiness is more consistent than an individual mood or passing feeling. Your baseline for happiness provides a kind of foundation for your emotions and experiences to rest upon. Because of this fact, if you retake The Happiness Test after some time has passed, your results may be dramatically different. This can be especially true if you take time to learn more about the nature of your own personal happiness patterns and apply the strategies suggested within this report. The material that follows will discuss specific ways you can achieve a shift in your happiness baseline, as well as altering the particular aspects that affect it.
Currently, your results indicate that you already have a higher happiness baseline than most people. However, you can always improve. By gaining a better understanding of what makes up your happiness, you can learn to direct your energies to the areas that you may currently be neglecting.
As you now know, your optimism has a positive effect on your overall happiness. However, your greatest source of happiness is your gratitude. Gratitude is a feeling of deep thankfulness for what your life offers you in both good times and bad. When you're grateful, you view life as deep and rich with meaning and feel thankful for the whole experience of living. You may cultivate this awareness on a regular basis through reflection or prayer.
Your strong sense of appreciation for life's blessings is where your happiness springs from most. It's also the place where your happiness gains the most power and stability. Because gratitude appears to be the natural anchor point for your happiness, know that you can always tap into this quality when times get rough.
For instance, like you, Meredith is a person who is usually very thankful for the good things in her life. Meredith's lifestyle is modest, but it still offers her plenty of things to be grateful for. She enjoys her work, her family, and her home. However, as happens in everyone's life at one time or another, Meredith's circumstances recently took a turn for the worse. Her 12-year-old cat, Tiger, died. Meredith was completely distraught by this loss. She cried for a full day and moped around the house even longer, feeling that life was unfair to take away such a cherished pet. But Meredith's sadness and confusion wasn't unusual or wrong. It was a natural reaction to such an emotional event. Even a very happy, grateful person has moments of sorrow and doubt. It's simply not realistic or even possible to be happy and thankful all the time.
In Meredith's case, after a period of grieving she decided that it was time to put away Tiger's toys and other reminders of her pet and move toward her own happiness. Still, it felt strange trying to be happy and thankful after having been lost in such grief. Meredith didn't know exactly how to regain her grateful spirit. But over time she naturally began to gravitate toward her former feelings of gratitude. Meredith remembered what a happy cat Tiger had been and how thankful she was for the time she got to spend with him. With these warm feelings in her heart, Meredith began to think about how much there was to be thankful for in her life. In time, she had shifted herself back into a place where she was receptive, grateful, and truly happy again. Meredith's positivity and resilience in the face of a sad event is a good model to apply to your own life.
There is real power in being grateful. Feeling gratitude helps you appreciate the gifts of knowledge and experience that life offers you. Being grateful may even give you a greater understanding of the cycles of life, your relationships with others, and the workings of a higher power. In addition to all these things, gratitude helps you build personal resources such as compassion and empathy. These are valuable assets that you can draw upon in less happy times.
Just like a living thing, your happiness will stay its most strong and robust with proper feeding. In other words, you have to regularly think thoughts and take actions that support being happy. Your test responses indicate that you feed your happiness by being particularly grateful. More than most people, deep down you truly know that you have a lot to be thankful for. On a very basic level, you seem to understand that you're blessed with many positive attributes, friends, and lucky breaks. This perception is probably the result of lots of positive reinforcement, perhaps even dating back to your childhood. For example, you may have had a parent or role model who openly expressed gratitude and taught you to keep your mind focused on the long list of things that you have to be grateful for. If you received such lessons, they were a tremendous gift that you're still putting to good use today.
Is there a key to happiness? In fact, there may be many. Take a look at your scores for the seven major areas that contribute to happiness. You'll be able to see which ones are currently contributing most to your happiness and which may need more attention. By continuing to make the most of your strong areas and shoring up the weaker ones, over time you can be sure to experience an increase in the happiness you feel.
In the meantime, pat yourself on the back for your higher scores. Your present happiness is rooted in those areas you already master. If you'd like to increase your happiness — as most people would — look to your lower scores. Those are the areas where you have the most room to grow and improve. Think about how a simple shift in your perceptions could increase your happiness. To that end, below Tickle's experts not only give you a more detailed description of your scores, they also lay out action steps to help you maximize all seven Happiness areas.
Gratitude
Gratitude
Your score on the Gratitude scale is 10 out of 10. This scale measures your sense of appreciation for life's blessings.
Because gratitude is your highest-scoring area, it's apparent that you already know firsthand how important this quality is to your happiness. Now all you have to do is keep it up and share the wealth. For instance, if a less grateful friend should turn to you for advice, consider telling them about the Take Action below.
Overall, your gratitude score is on the higher end of the scale. This means that to some degree, you already feel grateful for your life's experiences. You probably also take time to acknowledge the benefits and blessings of what you have. Gratitude is available to everyone who sets clear and focused intentions to acknowledge the good and beneficial things in their lives. Sometimes gratitude even means being thankful for the lessons learned in the school of hard knocks. By taking time out to recognize the good in your life, you increase your gratitude. Try the Take Action below and start counting your blessings.
People who reflect on the things they are grateful for — whether in journal writing, quiet contemplation, or sharing with others — are shown to have a greater overall sense of well-being than those who don't. Try this five-day journal exercise to begin your daily habit of being grateful:
Find a blank book or writing tablet that you can use to create your gratitude journal.
Each day, write down how and why you are grateful for the things listed below. Think about ways you can begin to more fully appreciate each.
Day 1: Health. For example, "I am thankful for my health because it enables me to do active things that I enjoy, like bicycling to work on nice days. I can appreciate my health more by trying to eat right and by exercising more often."
Day 2: Family. For example, "I am thankful for my mother because she always stands by me when I have a problem. I can appreciate my mother more by calling just to say hello more often and letting her know how much I value her."
Day 3: Friends. For example, "I am thankful that I have a small, tight-knit group of friends because they make my leisure time much more enjoyable. They also support me in tough times by making me laugh. I can appreciate my friends more by throwing a dinner party to thank them for being such great company."
Day 4: Work. For example, "I am thankful that I have such a great job because I truly enjoy what I do for a living. I can appreciate my job more by continuing to give it my best effort."
Day 5: Home. For example. "I am thankful for my apartment because it is a very comfortable, enjoyable place to work, play, and relax. I can appreciate my home more by keeping it cleaner."
You may choose to find even more things to be grateful for and record them in your journal. Try looking at smaller things. For example, "I am grateful that my husband made me breakfast this morning because it got my day off to a great start. I can appreciate him more by letting him know how much it helped me this morning." The more you write in your journal, the more conscious you will be of the small things — and the big things — that make your life great.
For bonus points, try following through on some of the things that you can do to show your appreciation. Thank people more. Appreciate your life more. You might be surprised how good it makes you feel.
Optimism
Optimism
Your score on the Optimism scale is 9 out of 10. This scale measures your tendency to anticipate the best possible outcomes for the situations life presents to you.
When people are optimistic, they possess a feeling that good things are here to stay and bad things will improve in time. By increasing your optimism you can strengthen your belief in yourself. You can also start to see all the wonderful possibilities in life, rather than simply dwelling on the potential problems. By harnessing the power of positive thinking, optimism can help you steer clear of worry so that you can take life-enriching chances.
Your score is on the higher side of the optimism scale. This means that when a tough situation presents itself, you're more likely to focus on the proverbial silver lining than the cloud. It also suggests that when faced with an obstacle, you'll usually look for ways to surmount it. Optimism is simply a matter of taking on a positive perspective; this is a skill that can be acquired and nurtured. Try the Take Action below to start thinking even more positively than you already do.
Research has proven that optimists are happier and more successful than their pessimist counterparts are. The primary difference between optimists and pessimists is the way these two types of people view setbacks. An optimist will ordinarily see setbacks as temporary while the pessimist will tend to see them as permanent.
Also, optimists claim less personal responsibility for setbacks than pessimists do. The primary reason that optimists are happier and more successful than pessimists appears to be that optimists are more likely to act, and even take risks, to do something about a setback. Because optimists see setbacks as temporary, they believe that situations are changeable and to some degree within their control.
Pessimists, on the other hand, believe that they're stuck with things being the way they are until the situation changes on its own. Although pessimists can sometimes see reality more accurately than optimists, their passive attitudes are more apt to lead to depression and away from happiness. To become more optimistic, you must change your thought patterns to include more positive thinking. Here are the two major secrets to optimism.
When something negative happens in your life, tell yourself that "this too shall pass." When you believe that a negative change is temporary, you'll be much more motivated to take action to move things in a more positive direction. Take stock of all the things not affected by the negative change. Acknowledge everything in your life that has remained positive. Making these mental notes can help you see that all is not ruined. In addition, remember that events rarely have a single cause. It's usually a combination of factors. Try to minimize the amount of blame you attribute to yourself when bad things happen.
When something positive happens in your life, believe that it is going to last. When you feel that a positive change is permanent, you rid yourself of unnecessary worry and let yourself truly benefit from every new, happy change that you experience. So instead of worrying, focus your attention on all of the things in your life that have been improved by the positive change. Allow yourself to bask in the glow of good fortune. Also consider anything you did that may have helped this change to happen. Feel good about all the ways big and small that you're contributing to your own happiness.
Self-Confidence
Confidence
Your score on the Self-Confidence scale is 9 out of 10. This scale measures the extent to which you like yourself and feel satisfied with who you are.
When people are confident, they are self-assured and truly like themselves, believing that they are people of quality. Having increased confidence can help you to both take on challenges without fear and act without hesitation. Confidence can also help you develop strength in your convictions and improve your sense of self-worth.
When compared with other people who took this test, your score on the confidence scale is relatively higher than that of most others. This means that most of the time you exhibit a reasonably high confidence level, especially concerning your self-esteem. Confidence is really a state of mind, a positive self-perception that you project to others. If you can see confidence as a skill rather than an innate characteristic, you'll be able to move more easily in the direction of increased confidence. Try the Take Action below to jump-start your confidence. It will help you by battling any self-criticisms you may possess.
The way you feel about yourself doesn't just have a huge effect on your confidence level. It also impacts the way you treat yourself, the way you treat others, and the kinds of life choices you make. Know that you can greatly improve the quality of your life through the power of your mind alone. To do so you need to honestly assess how you feel about yourself and take steps to change your self-concept for the better. The good news is that you don't have to be born with confidence; you can learn to be more confident. For starters, try to figure out what is negatively affecting your confidence and why.
List your top five negative criticisms of yourself. (Leave a few blank lines below each criticism.)
Review your criticisms for gross generalizations. Omit words such as always, never, and totally. If you can't omit them, change them to words like sometimes and somewhat.
Try to make the criticisms more specific. Come up with examples that illustrate why you believe in your criticism. If you can't come up with anything, take note of that and use it as ammunition against your negative self-talk in the future.
For each criticism ask yourself:
What about your negative criticism is true?
What is untrue?
What could this negative criticism be doing to serve you? In many cases, our negative criticisms of ourselves are there to warn us against danger, to keep us from making mistakes, or to guard against failure.
Finally, be honest with yourself about your weakness. Accept that you are flawed, but realize that you are probably not as bad as you were originally making yourself out to be.
Cheerfulness
Cheerfulness
Your score on the Cheerfulness scale is 9 out of 10. This scale measures the extent to which you have a good-natured disposition and experience blissful delight in even the smallest things.
When people are cheerful, they possess a jovial state of being in which pleasure comes easily to them. Becoming more cheerful can help you to explore your surroundings, enhance your relationships, and stretch your imagination because cheerfulness opens your mind and heart. You might be surprised to learn that cheerfulness can also be the key to developing increased knowledge and creativity. This is likely due to the ways being cheerful expands and alters your perspective.
Your cheerfulness score is somewhat higher than that of many others. This indicates that you're probably already a pretty playful, lighthearted person much of the time. Have you ever heard the saying, "Laughter is the best medicine?" There's actually some truth to it. Certain medical studies have shown that laughter even speeds recovery after surgery. Although being jovial and cheery in your daily life may feel frivolous at times, playing and laughing more can improve your health, your outlook on life, and your overall happiness. Try the Take Action below. It will help you make a point of laughing every day.
Laughter can renew your spirit, heal your body, and awaken your proverbial inner child. As we get older, few of us laugh as much or as hard as we did as kids. When's the last time you let yourself have a real belly laugh? Research indicates that the average adult gets by on only 15 smiles or laughs a day. Children, on the other hand, laugh or smile an average of 400 times a day. As adults, we have some catching up to do. A lot more laughter is in order.
At first, it may be hard to let yourself give in to fits of laughter; you may not quite remember how. But with practice, you'll likely be able to recapture at least some of your childish mirth. If you do achieve riotous laughter, congratulations! You're doing your health a big favor, not to mention your well-being. You'll also probably feel a lot happier to boot. Try these tips for increasing the laughter in your life.
Find humor in everyday situations. There is almost always something funny happening.
When you get upset about something, try laughing out loud. Sometimes you can gain perspective on a negative situation by laughing it off. It's rarely as bad as you think it is.
Dare yourself to laugh for 10 seconds without a break once every hour. If you can do that, you will already be laughing more than most adults do!
Try remembering funny things from your past. Amuse yourself throughout the day by conjuring up funny things that have happened to you in the past or imagining new ones. Allow yourself to laugh out loud. Who cares if people see you cracking yourself up? You're just thinking of something funny.
Make funny friends. It's good to spend time with people who keep you laughing.
Join a laugh club. Laugh clubs started catching on in India about six years ago; now they are international. People all over the world are meeting on a regular basis to promote laughter. See if you can find a club in your area.
Personal Growth
Personal Growth
Your score on the Personal Growth scale is 9 out of 10. This scale measures how focused and proactive you are about exploring who you are and expanding your life's impact.
When people are committed to personal growth, they're dedicated to being the best that they can be. They also put effort toward exploring what life has to offer. By increasing your focus on personal growth, you can feel a greater sense of personal control over what happens to you. Personal growth can also nurture your spirit, develop your willpower, and increase your strength and focus.
Your score on the personal growth scale is higher than average. This means that for the most part you have good focus and initiative when it comes to taking matters into your own hands to improve your life. Honoring your commitment to personal growth takes both dedication and a positive attitude. Sometimes it's tough, but by following through and working toward your goals, you can create an upward spiral toward further growth and achievement. Try the Take Action below to make even more space for personal growth in your life.
Although a commitment to personal growth comes naturally to some, others need to work a little harder to make space in their lives for change. Establishing and achieving goals is hard work and often takes great effort, even if you have a strong motivation to do so. Try taking the following steps to help make yourself more receptive to personal growth and change.
Take care of yourself. Eating well, exercising, and getting enough sleep are important to your day-to-day well-being. If your health begins to suffer, you probably won't have enough physical or emotional energy to devote to your personal growth efforts.
Keep your eye on the ball. Do your best to stay focused and determined, even when life presents you with obstacles. If you do lose focus, acknowledge why it happened and vow to get back on track. Beating yourself up for minor setbacks will harm you more than it will help.
Integrate change into your lifestyle. Think of personal growth as part of a lifelong improvement process. If you see it as more than a short-term fix, you'll probably remain much more motivated.
Have fun. The more you can enjoy the journey of personal growth, the more positive change will tend to flow toward you.
Celebrate your victories. The best rewards often don't come after making a change but are in the positive change itself. Give yourself credit for making these positive steps happen. You deserve it.
Contentment
Contentment
Your score on the Contentment scale is 8 out of 10. This scale measures your general sense of peace and satisfaction with your life.
When people are content, they feel that life is good and that they're truly satisfied with what the world has to offer them. By increasing your contentment, you can begin savoring the beauty in more everyday moments. You can also gain a greater sense of connection with your surroundings, other people, and even a higher power. Contentment is the quality that can help you develop an expanded worldview and real insight.
In terms of your numerical score in this area, you scored on the higher side of the contentment scale. This means that you're already somewhat content with your life or at least that you have moments of contentment when you feel things are going your way. Increasing your contentment doesn't have to be complicated. Often your ability to live in the present moment has more to do with your level of contentment than actually having what you want does. Try the Take Action below and begin to find more contentment from within.
Research has revealed that the secret to contentment doesn't come from wealth or health or any other sort of abundance. The utter absence of money or physical well-being affects contentment, but any level beyond basic subsistence levels of health, wealth, and so on has no effect on contentment at all. The main lesson in this fact is that contentment springs from being happy with what you have and believing that, all in all, life is good. Consider this research finding while doing the following exercise.
On a piece of paper, begin the following sentence: "I would be happier if...."
Let yourself be petty. Write down everything that comes to mind when completing this sentence. Maybe you will write, "I had more money," "I were more attractive," "I were smarter," "I had more friends," or similar statements.
Now look at each of the things on your list. For each, ask yourself the following questions:
How could your situation be worse than it is?
What about this area can you be content about (even in a small way)?
Is keeping your feeling of discontent worth a small measure of your happiness? If not, cross it off your list and resolve to be content with what you have in that area.
If you have crossed off everything on your list, congratulations on your new contentment! Now you just need to remember to honor the decisions you made in this exercise. You can stop here.
If there is at least one item on your list after you finish crossing things off, close your eyes and imagine yourself having what you believe you lack. How much more content do you think you would feel? Now try imagining yourself unable to get what you think you lack. How much less content do you think you would be?
Your chances of ever being content — even if you obtain what you think is missing — are lower if you cannot find contentment with the present moment and the present situation. This is because it is easy to slip into a pattern of putting off contentment because you feel you need something more. This way of thinking will keep contentment just slightly out of reach for your whole life.
Relationships
Relationships
Your score on the Relationships scale is 8 out of 10. This scale measures the extent to which you are positively affected by the people in your life who make up your social support network. When people have positive personal relationships, they have a base of support that they can turn to in happy and sad times. Over time, increased social interaction can help you relax into the knowledge that you can be who you are. This assumes, of course, that you are choosing to be around people who truly validate and support you. Having positive personal relationships can help you to develop more self-confidence, a sense of belonging, and greater ease in relating with all kinds of people.
When compared with others who took this test, you scored on the higher end of the relationship scale. This indicates that on the whole, you enjoy positive connections with the people in your life. Although almost everyone has times when they feel discouraged by someone close to them, for the most part you feel like your relationships are meaningful and bring out the best in you. By appreciating and valuing the people who appreciate and value you, you go a long way toward cultivating meaningful and lasting bonds. Try the Take Action below to learn how you can improve your relationships even more.
Social interaction is a basic human need, and its benefits are numerous. No matter how independent you feel you are, humans actually require a certain amount of social interaction in order to thrive. The amount and variety of social interaction each person needs to be at their peak happiness levels will vary. Regardless of what you find your specific needs to be, below you'll find three ideas to help you tend and grow your connections with others.
Give priority to your closest relationships. Make a list of the two to five people you regard as your closest confidants. When you have a choice to make between spending time with these close friends that you've listed or hanging out with someone else, choose those close friends first. Also, try keeping in touch with all of your close friends on a more regular basis. Show each one of them that you value the connection the two of you share.
Throw a party. Invite everyone you know or would like to know better and encourage your friends to bring guests that you don't know. This way, you'll have the opportunity to expand your network of friends and acquaintances easily and quickly. This tactic can work even better if you invite a slightly smaller core group of people for a monthly get together. Festivities could take the form of a potluck dinner, a book club, a movie night, or even a bowling party.
Help others. Your support network also provides you with the opportunity to support others when they need it. Giving help to a friend makes you feel needed, brings you closer to your friend, and generally makes you feel better about yourself.
Happiness is a consistent, moderate state of satisfaction or joy. True happiness with yourself and your life comes from having a strong, balanced, consistently positive approach to yourself and your world. Traditionally, it has been thought that if a person doesn't feel an overall sense of happiness with life, there must be something wrong. However recently, psychologists have begun to believe that this just isn't so. Happiness, they claim, is a state of mind, a life perception, and a series of good habits.
This is good news. If happiness is a skill set, then you can learn to be happier. Some people seem to be born happy. This may be true. Or perhaps these "happier" people have simply already learned these happiness skills through their interactions, through reading, or by having a keen perception into human nature. Whatever the case, their happiness is something you can learn from and achieve for yourself. In fact, if you know someone who seems very happy, they'll most likely be happy to advise you if you ask them about their outlook on life.
It should be noted that certain people experience intermittent moments of happiness without feeling like they can characterize themselves as happy people. In fact, some individuals have extremely happy moments, feeling a state of euphoria, and later crash down into depression or misery. These individuals lack the balance just described, either because they haven't learned the skills or, in rarer cases, because of biological factors having to do with their brain chemistry.
Finally, even happy people have down days. It's unrealistic to expect permanent, nonstop happiness. Such a thing doesn't exist in reality. However, you can learn to be more content with your life, confident in yourself, grateful for what you have, committed to your personal growth, full of laughter and good cheer, and optimistic. You can also learn to develop positive, supportive relationships with the people around you. In fact, by focusing yourself steadfastly on these seven areas, you can quite readily achieve them. Just remember that by enjoying yourself on your path to greater happiness, you're already a good way to achieving what you desire.
History of the smiley face
The smiley face was originally created in 1963 by Harvey Ball, a graphic artist working for State Mutual Insurance. The Massachusetts insurance company commissioned Ball to create a button for its morale-boosting campaign. Initially, Ball created a button with just a curved line representing a smile. He realized, however, that when turned upside down, his button turned into a frown. To remedy the problem, Ball added two dots for eyes and gave the whole button a sunny yellow color to promote cheer. His total art fee was $45. State Mutual created a first run of 100 of the buttons, which were a huge hit. The insurance company went on to distribute thousands of happy face buttons...and the rest is history.
