Mike
Carruthers:
Happiness is a good thing. But too much happiness
may not be.
Robert
Biswas-Diener:
It turns out that students for example who are an
eight out of ten on a "life satisfaction" scale outperform those who
are nine out of ten. Robert
Biswas-Diener, co-author of the book Happiness:
Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth… They
get better grades, they show up to class more - it turns out the eight (which
is still pretty satisfied) still leaves a little bit of room, a little bit of
hunger, if you will to do better, and to perform well. And you find this in other
areas too. Eights tend to make more money than nines or tens for example. But
happiness is indeed a worthy goal. When
people are put into a positive mood they actually are healthier, they tend to
get sick less, they become more creative, they seek out others and cultivate their
relationships. It turns out happiness is this tremendous emotional resource you
can tap to perform better in all the areas of life that you value. Cliché
though it may sound, happiness, says Robert, is a journey, not a destination. A
lot of people consider happiness as an emotional finish line. That is if you line
up the right things in life, the right spouse, the right city, the desirable job
- you get all those things in a row and then you cross that finish line and then
you just get to dwell in happiness. And really I think our daily experience shows
us that that's not really the case. Tomorrow,
the one important thing happy people have in common - I'm Mike Carruthers and
that's Something You Should Know.
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