Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

Is Happiness a Choice?

happiness is a choice

Is happiness a choice?

Is happiness a choice? Can you become happy by choosing to be happy?

Two small studies by researchers Yuna L. Ferguson and Kennon M. Sheldon, reported in the Journal of Positive Psychology, suggest exactly that. The intention to become happy may be the key to being happy.

Does the explicit attempt to be happier facilitate or obstruct the actual experience of happiness? Two experiments investigated this question using listening to positive music as a happiness-inducing activity. Study 1 showed that participants assigned to try to boost their mood while listening to 12 min of music reported higher positive mood compared to participants who simply listened to music without attempting to alter mood. However, this effect was qualified by the predicted interaction: the music had to be positively valenced (i.e. Copland, not Stravinsky). In Study 2, participants who were instructed to intentionally try to become happier (vs. not trying) reported higher increases in subjective happiness after listening to positively valenced music during five separate lab visits over a two-week period.

I will admit, this is not a massive research project and I would never argue that happiness is possible all the time by an act of the will. I recognize that there are circumstances and conditions that will make anyone and everyone unhappy. But are we forced to live there? [Read more…]

What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do

how do I make the best decision when I'm not sure what to do?

What do YOU do when you don’t know what to do?

What do you do when you don’t know what to do?

The great philosopher and baseball player, Yogi Berra, described this state of indecision and gave sage advice when he said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Not knowing what to do can take various forms, including:

  • two or more great options – yes, theoretically we love having choices, but in real life, more menu items to select from is not necessarily easier.
  • two or more terrible options – this is the scenario that begat the phrase, “jumping from the frying pan into the fire.” If you’ve burned yourself on a frying pan, you know why the guy jumped.
  • confused by the facts – ETFs, ETNs, IRAs, Roth IRAs, 401Ks – have you figured out the best retirement investment options for your golden years?
  • the future is unknown – duh! – of course we know that, but this variation of confused by facts still catches us by surprise and stymie our decision-making. This factor has also created the sport of second-guessing the stupidity of others based on our 20/20 hindsight. And as a publisher I can attest there are plenty of books that have been written by people who have caught lightning in a bottle and looked back and described in detail how they engineered their success – even if they had no clue what they were doing at the time.
  • conflicting feedback – I’m not sure if it’s scarier when the people I trust unanimously agree with what I want to do – or when it is a hung jury.
  • fear of failure – *spoiler alert* – aren’t you just a little suspicious of anyone that promises you a path or program that insures success – like a sure-fire way to pick the right stock every time? (If that was possible, why would someone that rich waste time selling a program to me?) If you are a perfectionist, decisions just got more than a little bit tougher.
  • decision fatigue – there are business dynamos that have no problem making million dollar decisions all day but have a blank stare and no ideas when asked where to go for dinner. Decisions take energy. If you’ve been working 12 hour days to finish up a project, it might not be the best time to rush out and buy a new car you can’t afford.

[Read more…]