Elusive Happiness

 “Everyone who has observed human behavior for more than thirty continuous seconds seems to have noticed that people are strongly, perhaps even primarily, perhaps even single-mindedly, motivated to feel happy.” – Daniel Gilbert (Harvard psychologist), Stumbling on Happiness.

The desire for happiness is universal. It’s a distinctive part of what makes us human. Virtually all other desires emanate from this essential need. It’s not surprising then that the 11 billion dollar self-help industry is growing despite the recession. Focusing on this most obviously related sector is thinking too narrowly. Happiness is the fuel of all industry and human expression. Art, sports, romance, religion, charity; if there’s something that we do there’s some promise of happiness involved.

The thriving self-help industry tells us three important things. It shows us that in difficult economic conditions people become even more invested in seeking out happiness. More generally, it tells us that people view happiness as a goal in and of itself and that they believe there are means of achieving it. It also indicates that people see happiness as elusive and difficult to attain.

Happiness has in fact become more elusive over time. In China happiness has declined since 1990 despite a significant wave of economic growth. Britain is less happy than it was in the 1950’s despite being three times as rich. America is gridlocked at a certain level of happiness since the 1970’s despite spearheading the happiness industry. Women are less happy than they were in the 1970’s. Men are less happy than they were in the 1980’s.

“Both sexes witnessed comparable slippages in self-confidence, growing regrets about the past, and declines in virtually every measure of self-reported physical and mental health. This rising discontent holds true regardless of gender, age, marital status and educational attainment.”

Think about how important this is. Happiness is of paramount importance in all our lives and it seems to be slipping away from us year after year. This leaves us with big questions. What do we mean by happiness? How do we go about attaining happiness? Is there something we’re doing wrong? Is there a better way?

All these questions have answers. Watch this space.