Happy success
Review of Research Challenges Assumption That Success Makes People Happy (Science Daily)
From a review of 225 studies in the current issue of Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), lead author Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., of the University of California, Riverside found that chronically happy people are in general more successful across many life domains than less happy people and their happiness is in large part a consequence of their positive emotions rather than vice versa.
When people feel happy, they tend to feel confident, optimistic, and energetic…
Does success cause happiness? Or does happiness cause success? Well, you couldn’t get a publication out of the discovery that succeeding makes a person happy. You can get one out of a demonstration that being happy tends to make for success. My reaction: 225 studies (over 200,000 subjects), and not a word that tells me what to do here in this moment.
Of course, if I am happy, this news would make me feel confident, optimistic, and energetic. That should make me happy. But then, I was already happy, so I didn’t need this news.
And if I am not happy, this news should convince me that I am even worse off than I thought: an unhappy loser. This discovery is not going to make me confident, optimistic, and energetic.
“Nothing to be done,” to quote Estragon (Waiting for Godot), speaking for the unhappy people. But who will speak for the happy people? The ones who are confident, optimistic, and energetic. Here are a few whose help I acknowledged in the Thinkerer: Captain James Tiberius Kirk, of the starship Enterprise; Mr. Spock; Luke Skywalker; Obi-Wan Kenobi; Yoda; Dorothy and her friends in Oz; Bilbo Baggins; Walter Mitty; Perseus, Son of Zeus; The Little Engine That Could; Rocky Balboa.
All fictional, you say? No. All mythical. All representing the millions of real people to whom “Nothing to be done.” is a challenge rather than a wall. All representing the part of the personality (or brain module) that I call the Hunter. The Hunter is (you guessed it) confident, optimistic, and energetic. Is that the same as being happy?
I think you need one more trick to feel chronically happy. You need to be able to sic your Hunter on long term goals that you consider important. Will you be happy then? You will probably be too busy to notice unless some psychologist comes along to ask whether your happiness is causing your success. Feel free to answer that you are too busy to talk to psychologists right now.
From a review of 225 studies in the current issue of Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), lead author Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., of the University of California, Riverside found that chronically happy people are in general more successful across many life domains than less happy people and their happiness is in large part a consequence of their positive emotions rather than vice versa.
When people feel happy, they tend to feel confident, optimistic, and energetic…
Does success cause happiness? Or does happiness cause success? Well, you couldn’t get a publication out of the discovery that succeeding makes a person happy. You can get one out of a demonstration that being happy tends to make for success. My reaction: 225 studies (over 200,000 subjects), and not a word that tells me what to do here in this moment.
Of course, if I am happy, this news would make me feel confident, optimistic, and energetic. That should make me happy. But then, I was already happy, so I didn’t need this news.
And if I am not happy, this news should convince me that I am even worse off than I thought: an unhappy loser. This discovery is not going to make me confident, optimistic, and energetic.
“Nothing to be done,” to quote Estragon (Waiting for Godot), speaking for the unhappy people. But who will speak for the happy people? The ones who are confident, optimistic, and energetic. Here are a few whose help I acknowledged in the Thinkerer: Captain James Tiberius Kirk, of the starship Enterprise; Mr. Spock; Luke Skywalker; Obi-Wan Kenobi; Yoda; Dorothy and her friends in Oz; Bilbo Baggins; Walter Mitty; Perseus, Son of Zeus; The Little Engine That Could; Rocky Balboa.
All fictional, you say? No. All mythical. All representing the millions of real people to whom “Nothing to be done.” is a challenge rather than a wall. All representing the part of the personality (or brain module) that I call the Hunter. The Hunter is (you guessed it) confident, optimistic, and energetic. Is that the same as being happy?
I think you need one more trick to feel chronically happy. You need to be able to sic your Hunter on long term goals that you consider important. Will you be happy then? You will probably be too busy to notice unless some psychologist comes along to ask whether your happiness is causing your success. Feel free to answer that you are too busy to talk to psychologists right now.
posted by Selby Evans at 9:54 AM
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