Things may not be perfect, but they are going well. This doesn't mean you are complacent. In fact, growth and challenge in your life might be part of what makes you so satisfied. -25 to 29. Things are going well. This isn't a bad place at all. Life is enjoyable, and things are just fine in the major domains of life-work or school, family, leisure, and personal development. -20 to 24. This is the range that most people in developed nations fall into. You are generally satisfied but have some areas where you very much want improvement. You may fall into this range because you are mostly satisfied with most of your life but see a need for modest improvement in all spheres, or because you are quite happy in most areas of your life but feel a need for dramatic improvement in just one or two places. You probably have that gnawing feeling I wrote about in chapter 1 and are ready to take action to feel better about yourself. -15 to 19. You can see a need for modest improvement in just about all aspects of your life. -14 and under. You are not happy. This may be the temporary effect of a death in the family, a divorce, a job loss-and things will get better with time. But if this state is chronic, big changes are in order.
To help understand your life-satisfaction score it is useful to understand the components that go into most people's view of happiness. One of the most important influences on happiness is social relationships. People who score high tend to have a family and friends that are close and supportive.
Work or school, or performance in an important role such as homemaker or grandparent, is another critical area. When you enjoy your work, be it paid or unpaid, you tend to feel needed and productive, which adds meaning to your life.
Another important aspect of happiness is a sense of satisfaction with who you are. Some religious affiliation definitely contributes to feeling good. So does a good marriage, learning and growth, health, exercise, and adequate amounts of leisure time. But for many people, Diener concludes, "It is important to feel a connection to something larger than oneself."
I can't say it any clearer than that. The path to this fulfilling state of engagement often lies in the direction of doing something to try to make the world a better place. You don't even have to succeed. Just trying makes a difference. "There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy," said Robert Louis Stevenson. "By being happy, we sow anonymous benefits upon the world."
Sources of Happiness
Relationship with Family Friends and Friendship
Contributing to the Lives of Others
Leisure Activities
Relationship with Parents
Religion
Physical or Sexual Pleasure Exercise and Physical Well-Being
Job and Career Amount of Money Earned
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
One thing you may notice about Diener's quiz is that there is no mention of age. A lot of people consider old and cranky words that naturally fit together. But that's not the case. More people in their sixties and seventies report being happier than people in their forties, according to a survey spanning twenty-one countries conducted for bank HSBC. Laura
Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, has researched happiness in people ages eighteen to a hundred, and she too has found that people get happier as they age. They may have reservations about the way they've spent large parts of their life, as was the case with my sages. But on a day-in, day-out basis, as you age the frequency with which you feel angry, sad, disgusted, envious, or contemptuous declines. When these feelings do occur they don't last as long. One survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that people ages twenty to twenty-four are sad 3.5 days a month; people sixty-five to seventy-four are sad just 2.3 days a month.
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