What is Happiness and how do I measure my progress?

Post 2 on "how to get and stay happy." Let me just start this one off by saying... I'm definitely not there yet. Yesterday was ROUGH and for reasons that were totally avoidable and totally within my control. Maybe I'll talk a bit about that at the end of this post if there's time. 

Today's topics of focus is:
  • What is happiness?
  • How to measure happiness?

What Is Happiness

Really this question is just a pre-cursor to the next question. My thought process goes like this: 
  1. My goal and subsequently the goal of this blog is to "Obtain and maintain happiness"
  2. In order to get anywhere, you need to know where that is
  3. So, in order to obtain happiness, I really should figure out what exactly happiness is as a start
So... here I go. Let's brainstorm on what happiness might be. Of course I'm going to start with the good 'ol Merriam Webster Dictionary definition:

Dictionary Definition:


https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/happiness

I'm going to pick these definitions apart a bit - because while these do give me a way to describe to someone else what "happiness" is - it may not necessarily help me understand happiness in the way I want to achieve it. In short - happiness looks different for everyone - so I'm going to evaluate these definitions against my own impressions regarding what I'm truly looking for. 

a: A state of well-being and contentment: JOY
  • I suppose this definition could work for my goals - but all it really does it create more questions. For example: What brings me contentment? What puts me in a state of well-being? Maybe that's the right route to take here though... I'm going to table it for now and explore a bit later. Let's just highlight those questions so I don't forget.
b: a pleasurable or satisfying experience
  • I already have a strong negative response to this definition. I don't feel like this one will be helpful for me. This definition contains happiness into a single experience and emphasizes pleasurable and satisfying as the emotions to aspire for. I know for certain I want long-lasting happiness - not a one-off experience. I also know for certain that I don't just want pleasure - I want... the deeper kind of happiness. I have no idea how I'd describe that... maybe well-being and contentment is a good way to go for now. 

Dictionary Definition Summary:

Ok so to summarize the findings from the dictionary definition, here's what I've decided:
  • Fundamental Elements of Happiness for ME:
    • Long-Lasting
    • Creates a state of well-being
    • Creates feelings of contentment
 I think that all of those could use some further defining and evaluating... but this seems like a good start for now: Long-lasting well-being and contentment. 

How To Measure Happiness 

So, on to the next question. Now that I have at least an introductory idea of what I'm looking for - long-lasting well-being and contentment - how can I measure my progress? How do I know that I have become more or less happy (short of just "feeling" that way). I don't know the answer to that right now... so time to brainstorm. 

Existing Methods of Measuring Happiness

Just like with the definition - I'm ok looking at what others have done to measure happiness as a starting point for my own efforts. I found this cool site called Pursuit of Happiness that highlights some modern happiness measuring tools. Here they are (note I grabbed this list and their links directly from the pursuit of happiness site - feel free to check them out too!). 

Oxford Happiness Scale

Developed by psychologists Michael Argyle and Peter Hills at Oxford University - this tool is a survey where you respond to a series of prompts by indicating how accurately they describe you. For example a prompt might say: 

I don’t feel particularly pleased with the way I am. 

  • Strongly Agree 

  •  ... 

  •  Strongly Disagree

You go through about 30 of these prompts - then you take the average of all your responses to get a "Score" (check out the link for specifics) between 1 and 6. The higher the score the happier you supposedly are. I'd like to note at this time that I scored an INCREDIBLE 1.31 on the test. So... like I said at the beginning of this post... I'm not there yet.  

I think this one could be a useful tool for measuring my happiness and my progress. If I were to create a goal of getting to a 5 with this tool - I could realistically check in on a daily basis to see how I'm doing. I'd like to explore some of the other tools before I settle on one though.

Unfortunately I'm out of time for today. So I'll have to explore the other tools in another post!

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