I think we would all like to be happy.  It just feels good!  But there are so many more reasons to maintain happiness.

Did you know that you are smarter and more motivated when you are happy?  That means that you are also more successful.  Shawn Achor states in his book, The Happiness Advantage, “The most successful people, the ones with the competitive edge, don’t look to happiness as some distant reward for their achievements, nor grind through their days on neutral or negative; they are the ones who capitalize on the positive and reap the rewards at every turn.”

You are the only one who knows if you are truly happy because happiness is relative to the person experiencing it.  Some people are happiest when they are striving to fulfill their potential.  Some seem to think they would be happy if they could do whatever they want and not be restricted with work or responsibility.  That is not usually the case.

Studies have shown that pleasure alone is not what makes us happy.  It is doing what has meaning.  In my work in Human Resources I have seen that people are no longer content with working a job to get paid.  They are looking for work where they feel like they are making a difference.  It needs meaning.

There was a long-term study that followed 272 employees.  Their level of positive emotions was measured and then their job performance was followed for 18 months.  The employees who were more positive at the beginning received better evaluations and higher pay over time.

A different study showed that how happy a person was as a college freshman predicted how high their income was nineteen years later – no matter what their initial level of wealth.

Another study was done of diaries of 180 Catholic nuns which were all born before 1917.  The nuns whose entries at 20 years old contained more joyful content, lived almost 10 years longer than those whose diaries were more negative or neutral.

Shawn Achor says, “In addition to broadening our intellectual and creative capacities, positive emotions also provide a swift antidote to physical stress and anxiety, what psychologists call ‘the undoing effect.’”

Improved intelligence, motivation, success, higher income, less stress and longer life.  I would say those benefits are worth making the effort to be positive and happy!

Be happy so you can live . . . your life to the fullest.