The Happiness Equation

“My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn’t that enough for a whole lifetime?” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Last week, I attended the High Impact Leadership course (formerly the course was referred to as Innovative Leadership) at IE Business School, Madrid where (among other things), a wonderful perspective was shared about something which is (or should be) most important for us ...”Happiness”.

Prof. Siegfried Hoenle, one of the professors conducting the course brought forward to the  participants the concept of the Happiness Equation (more details can be found at his web site www.positiveleadershipinstitute.com) 

H = S + C + V

Where, H = Happiness, S = Set Range, C = Circumstances and V = factors under our Voluntary control.

H = Happiness

“Happiness” in this equation does not mean the temporary feeling of joy or a stroke of good mood which we feel when we hear a joke, eat an ice-cream or when we finish something before a deadline but the constant feeling of bliss, optimism, satisfaction and positivity. The happiness in the happiness equation is measures of our “real happiness” which we feel as a constant or a prolonged state of  mind even when we may not be literally smiling. Unfortunately in today’s world, we have less and less of the “true” happiness and our urge to gratify this missing happiness makes us go more and more after the temporary happiness, only to leave us with the feeling of unsatisfaction over the passage of time.

 S = Set Range

For Destiny never swerves, nor yields to men the helm. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, The World-Soul

Set range is the name given to factors such as our genetic inheritance, our cultural and social exposure which shapes formed our psyche.(more about this in the blog Transactional Analysis : A tool to better understand ourselves). The set factors influence our happiness.

However, these set ranges are as they are. We cannot change them very much (research provides insight that we can change them to some extent but the process is a very difficult one), it is best to leave the set factor to rest for now and dive into other factors where it seems, there is more hope and assurance of finding happiness.

C = Circumstances

“This too shall pass” – old Hebrew adage

Our happiness is also dependent on external factors. However research shows that the effect of circumstances on our happiness is much lower in the long run than we expect it to be. Research shows that circumstances account for no more that  8 – 15% variance in our happiness..

This is also quite evident if we take a step back and contemplate our own experiences. Recollect a very difficult personal or professional situation which occurded to you in the last few years. While you were in the middle of the situation, the world may have felt like a painful and unfair place to live in but today (after some time has passed), the situation most probably does not seem to have so much negative effect on your life.

Infact, in my own case, with hindsight, I can say that the such experiences have actually helped me become a better person (After all, it is human tendency to learn more from negative experiences that positive experiences)

 V = factors under our Voluntary control

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. “ - Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

This is factor which we can influence the most. This is how we choose to live our lives. The good news (or rather happy news :) ) is that this is the factor which seems to have the most influence on our state of happiness.

We can choose to live life in three ways:

Life of pleasure :Seek as many pleasures as possible in life

Life of engagement : Identify our signature strengths which give us energy and fulfillment and work in areas where we can use them (a good way to find about our strengths is strengthscope.com)

Life of meaning : Pursue meaning in our activities (More about it in the blog Tool for Motivation Leadership : Logotherapy)

As per research, the impact on hapiness of these ways are

• Life of pleasure : Impact on happiness : Marginal
• Life of engagement : Impact on happiness : > 99%
• Life of meaning : Impact on happiness : > 99.5%

Conclusion

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

We should strive to find engagement and meaning in our lives so as to achieve the constant feeling of bliss, optimism, satisfaction and positivity. Prof. Siegfried Hoenle recommended some tools and some good books to help increase our chances to find engagement and meaning.  I will try to share more during the coming days about it. The website www.positiveleadershipinstitute.com from the Prof. Siegfried Hoenle should have most of that already described in case you would like to make head start towards Happiness :)....