Happiness has been a quest for humankind evers since; from ancient greek philosophers to contemporary psychologists, from physicists to ordinary people. Definitions of happiness were constructed and reconstructed. Roadmaps were given as to where one can find it and remedies were suggested for sustaining it. For one, it is to love and be loved, for another, happiness is attainable by social acceptance, status, sucess or material wealth. Some find joy in helping others or seek it in states of gratitude. The moments or states of happiness are variant, depending on the individual characteristics and the context. But the common thread across the definitions winds up that the positive state is not permanent. The ardor and span of happiness fluctuates in the ups and downs of life.
Driven to extract a pragmatic definition of happiness applicable to everyday life, samples of people with different personality styles going through parallel stages of life were watched in longitudinal studies, and the extent of their happiness levels were recorded over the course of the years.
The results featured the characteristics of people who can restore their happiness in the ups and downs of life as :
- Self-aware
- Realistic in their to-do-lists
- Accept mistakes and failure
- Persevere
- Altruistic
- Feel gratitude
- Use common sense
- Focused
- Self-reliant and effortful
According to research, such individuals has sufficient self-knowledge to furnish them with a pragmatic approach as to what they can actually do. For they know what and how much to expect from themselves, they focus on attaining it, and the mere effort brings them contentment at the end of the day. They find a feeling of joy in helping others. In general, they avoid breeding negative thoughts, they seek the truth and they are long distance runners. The source of their ongoing motivation lies in the harmony between their characteristic values, life goal(s) and what they actually do in everyday life.
Duygu Bruce
April 28, 2019
