Why We’re Happy
By Myles Golden

Last summer I stumbled across an article titled “Why We’re Happy” by Arthur Brooks, a professor of Business and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and author of Gross National Happiness. Since I deal with a lot of unhappy people, I decided to purchase his book thinking I might find some valuable information to share with my clients. I did just that think what I learned is worth sharing with our readers for our CareerTips newsletter.

Brooks is also a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of  Who Really Cares. Additionally, he writes and speaks widely on the connections among culture, politics, and economic life. And since we are all about careers, I found it most interesting that he spent twelve years as a professional French hornist with the City Orchestra of Barcelona. Talk about making a career change!

Brooks used a lot of different organizations to gather facts on happiness: The National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey, The American Enterprise Institute and the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research . So what did his research on happiness reveal? With a lot of data to support his findings he found that there are five Predictors of Happiness:

Happiness Predictor #1:  Faith

• 85% of Americans identify with religion and about 1/3 of Americans attend a house of worship every week.  These statistics have changed very little over the decades in America. How does America compare to Europe? In Holland, 9% of the population attends church., in France 7% and in Latvia only 3%.
• In 2004, 43% of religious people were very happy, compared to 23% of secularists (those who do not identify with a religion.)
• Religious people are more optimistic about the future than secularists.  Secularists were twice as likely to say, “I’m inclined to feel I’m a failure.”
• The connection between faith and happiness holds regardless of religion.
• Faith is a common value among happy people.

Happiness Predictor #2:  Work

• A 2002 survey of 1000 people, when asked, “If you were to get enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, would you stop working?”  Less than 1/3 of the respondents said yes.
• For most Americans, job satisfaction is equivalent to life satisfaction.
• Among those people who say they are very happy in their lives, 95% are also satisfied with their jobs.
• If we want to be happy, we need to work.

Happiness Predictor #3:  Marriage and Family

• In 2004, 42% of married Americans said they were very happy vs. 23% of never-married people said they were very happy. 
• Overall, married people were 6 times more likely to say they were “very happy.”
• A 2003 study of 24,000 people for more than a decade documented a significant increase in happiness after people married.

Happiness Predictor #4:  Charity

• People who give money to charity are 43% more likely than non-givers to say they are happy.
• By international standards, Americans privately gave nearly $300 billion to charity in 2006 – more than the entire GDP of some of our allies in Europe.

• In the late 1990’s the average American  gave 3 times as much to charity as the average Frenchman, 7 times as much to the average German; and 14 times as much as the average Italian.
• It doesn’t matter what the gifts go to.  People who give are far happier than those who don’t.  Even giving blood improves our attitude. In essence, the more people give, the happier they get. He concludes that “the only way to buy happiness is to give your money away.”

Happiness Predictor #5:  Freedom

• Freedom and happiness are intimately related.
• In a 2000 survey, people who personally feel “completely free” or “very free” were twice as likely as those who don’t to say they’re very happy about their lives.
• Researchers have shown that economic freedom brings happiness as does political and religious freedom.
• Moral freedom – a lack of constraints on behavior – does not.  People who feel they have unlimited moral choices when it comes to sex or drugs, as examples, tend to be unhappier than those who do not feel they have as many choices in life.

In conclusion, moral values are critical to Americans.  As a people, we do best by protection of our political and economic freedom and guarding against a culture that sanctions immorality.  What matters most for happiness is not having a lot of things, but having healthy values.  Without these values, our jobs and our economy will bring us soulless toil and joyless riches. Therefore, a life that reflects values and practices like faith, hard work, marriage, charity, and freedom will most likely be a happy life.

I hope you have found this information helpful as you make your New Year’s resolutions and contemplate how you want your career to develop in 2009.
Happy New Year!

Myles

Upcoming Events

January 22, 2009 - 8:00-9:00 AM - Breakfast with the Mayor, What's Up at City Hall?   Mayor Knox White will give us a state of the city briefing at The Commerce Club, which is co-sponsoring the event with Golden Career Strategies. First-class buffet breakfast, $20. Click here to register now.

February 2, 2009 - Weekly Monday Morning Roundtable (8:30-9:30) - Revolutionary Wealth.  Terry Weaver will give a debrief on the book Revolutionary Wealth, by Alvin Toffler, one of the best-known futurists of our time. RSVP required.

March 9, 2009 - Weekly Monday Morning Roundtable (8:30-9:30) - Four Generations in the Workplace by Myles Golden.  RSVP required.

For reservations for Monday Morning Roundtables, email Ann Golden at agolden@goldencareerstrategies.com.

For an entire list of upcoming Roundtables check our website www.goldencareerstrategies.com.

"The road of life is paved with flattened squirrels who couldn't make a decision."

Author Unknown.