There is no such thing as overall happiness. Asking someone if they are happy, at any given time, is like asking the weatherman, at any given time, if the sun is shining. Sometimes the sun is shining and other times it isn’t. Happiness is event-driven. What makes one person happier than another person is the quantity of happiness events they experience in life. The frequency of happiness events you have had in life is really the only way to determine if your life was a happy one. The reason wealthy people are happier than everyone else is not because of the wealth they accumulated in life but because of the happiness events that wealth enabled them to create. 52% of the wealthy in my study owned a vacation home. Their purpose in purchasing the vacation home was to create a hub for more frequent family get-togethers. Typically these were extended weekends. Since the wealthy can afford to go skiing more frequently, they are able to create more skiing happiness events. Since the wealthy can afford to entertain more socially, they are able to have more parties with friends. Since wealthy people can afford to send their kids away to college, they experience more college graduation happiness events.
The point is, the more happiness events you create in life, the more happiness you will derive from life. At the end of your life, when you ponder your overall happiness, you will be able to assert whether or not your life was a happy one overall by looking back on the quantity of the happiness events you experienced during your life.
About Thomas C. Corley
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