What "Happiness Experts" Can Tell Us About the Pursuit

The "pursuit of happiness" doesn't sound like an area for academic research. It turns out that there are happiness researchers and the Wall St. Journal asked six of them about what they had learned that they had applied to their own lives and came up with five key areas.

First relish the day. According to the WSJ, the greatest barrier to greater happiness is "hedonic adaption", wherein individuals tend to accustom themselves to both positive and negative circumstances, long-term changes in happiness level are limited or possibly even prohibited. In response, one happiness expert interviewed recommended finding ways to hold on to good memories longer. For example, combat adaption by celebrating the small things like going out to dinner to after even little victories at work and don't just save such celebrations for promotions or other infrequent events. When you go on a vacation that you particularly enjoy, there is no excuse for not taking a digital camera as well as acquiring a few souveniers along the way.

Second avoid long commutes. Now one might wonder why hedonic adaption doesn't work with commutes such that we ultimately become accustom to traffic so that it isn't such a big deal. It turns out that one of the heinous things about traffic is its unpredictability. This lack of control is a great causer of stress and leads to even greater unhappiness than one might expect from a commuter.

Third, see your friends. Research has shown that time spent with friends and family are some of our happiest times. You may think that working longer hours to make more money will lead to the ability to buy more things and make you happier. However, not spending time with those you enjoy means that your strategy has a good chance of backfiring.

Fourth, buy memories. This WSJ suggestion is quite clever. The basic premise is that by sitting down an planning specific events that have the potential to be lifelong memories you have a good chance of boosting your level of happiness. The example given in the WSJ article was of a man who took his father to a Super Bowl. He got a happiness boost from the anticipation of the game, the actual game itself and from the residual memory. He even framed his ticket.

Lastly, limit your options. This may seem counter intuitive but research has shown that when people have too many options they second guess their decisions and are less happy.