Let’s take a 5 minute happiness assessment.
Psychologists describe happiness as the frequent experience of positive emotions (joy, excitement, contentment) combined with a deeper, overall feeling of meaning and purpose in one’s life.
This does not mean we are happy all the time because there are hard and difficult things happening in our lives.
But don’t get stuck on the idea that once you have this or that “thing” then you will be truly happy.
The truth is, happiness is achieved internally, not by external circumstances.
Money will not make you happy.
Fame will not make you happy.
Being thin will not make you happy.
If you think something in the world has the power to make you happy, you will be left chasing happiness until you die.
Oxford psychologists Michael Argyle and Peter Hills published an assessment used to measure “subjective well-being” (aka happiness).
This 5-minute questionnaire is widely used to measure happiness.
You can take the assessment here: http://happiness-survey.com/
An added use of this questionnaire is to track your happiness. I recommend you take the assessment more than once over a period of time.
For instance, if your score is lower than you would have wanted – your awareness can motivate you to make some positive changes in your outlook and daily activities to increase your level of happiness. Taking the assessment again after making changes may result in a higher score!
Of course, no assessment or questionnaire can fully encompass our emotions or individual wants and needs. But it is kind of a neat tool to take inventory of our own “subjective well-being”!
Put a 😀 emoji below when you complete the questionnaire. Is your score higher or lower than you expected?
