Happier & The Pursuit of Happiness
How to Be Happier and What Is Happiness from Tal Ben-Shahar
Oct 10, 2007
The Pursuit of Happiness
Tal Ben-Shahar's Happier is a small book loaded with good advice and useful tools we can use as we strive for the universal human goal: to be happy. Psychologist Ben-Shahar has the remarkable ability of translating the latest research findings on happiness into easily understood suggestions that we can apply in our lives.
What Is Happiness?
Ben-Shahar defines happiness as "the overall experience of pleasure and meaning." To be happy we need both meaning and pleasure in our lives, to have both a sense of purpose and the experience of positive emotions.
Ben-Shahar describes happiness as the ultimate currency, the end to which all other ends lead, and he says happiness is the indicator by which we measure our lives.
We pursue authentic happiness because it is our nature to do so; we're wired to seek to be happy. Happiness has an evolutionary validity. All else being equal, happy people are successful in relationships, work, income, and health. Happy people live longer.
Goal Setting and Happiness
Goals are an important component of happiness. However, contrary to popular belief, goal attainment does not, in itself, bring happiness. The positive emotion we feel upon completing a difficult goal is short-lived. Rather than happiness, we tend to feel relief and satisfaction, positive emotions, to be sure, but not happiness. The process of working to achieve a difficult and valued goal is as much a factor in happiness as achieving the goal.
Researcher Kennon Sheldon advises that those seeking happiness and increasing well-being focus on goals involving growth, connection to others, contribution, and include a personally interesting and important component.
Goal Difficulty
Matching the difficulty of a task or goal to our skill and ability level is another important factor influencing happiness. When the combination of challenge and skill are just right, we experience the heady state which psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi calls flow. During flow we enjoy the process of our work, we are deeply immersed in the experience itself, and feel rewarded as much by the work as by the end result.
Most of us have had the experience of being so deeply involved in something interesting that we've lost track of time. We feel as if we are one with the activity, as if we are the activity rather than a person doing an activity. Athletes often call this being "in the zone." Our senses seem sharpened, our focus is complete, and our intensity is extremely high, yet the experience seems effortless.
Happiness at Work
While being happy at work may be an oxymoron to many, researchers know that most flow experiences happen to us at our work. How we approach our work and how we perceive it are big factors in whether we are happy at work.
Psychologist Richard Hackman finds that the following three conditions are conducive to happiness at work:
- The work should draw upon a variety of skills
- The work should be a complete task, a start-to-finish activity that has an end result, and
- The work should have a significant impact on other people.
How to Find the Work at Which You'll Be Happy
To find the work which gives you the best opportunity for happiness, Tal Ben-Shahar suggests asking yourself these three questions:
- What gives me meaning?
- What gives me pleasure?
- What are my strengths?
With some thoughtful effort, we can identify work that gives us meaning and pleasure and uses our strengths.
Happiness Expectations
Tal Ben-Shahar advises that an expectation of constant happiness is unreasonable and sets us up for disappointment. Attaining lasting happiness requires that we enjoy the journey on our way toward a destination we deem valuable.
If you enjoyed Happier & The Pursuit of Happiness, you may like Positive Psychology &Happiness and How to Cheer Up
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