Happiness Index

Garden of Earthly Delights

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Am I happy? That is a question my mother often asked.

I am generally happy, but of course there are days when I feel down. I am thinking if I put together a list of things that I really care about to quantify happiness, then perhaps I have a better idea of where I am in terms of my happiness level and whether I have reason to feel sad or discontent. This exercise also forces me to focus on what truly matters in my life, sustain me psychologically, and can be mostly accomplished even in solitude.

Currently, these are the things I care about, and their respective weights are in brackets and sum to one:

a) Make at least one delicious meal weekly (0.15)

b) Exercise five times weekly (0.10)

c) Meet up with friends and family weekly (0.15)

d) Play the piano twice per week (0.05)

e) Learn something new regularly (0.15)

f) Travel annually (0.15)

g) Read daily (0.10)

h) Lose a pound per month for 30 months (0.05)

i) Listen to birds sing (0.10)

Piano playing and weight loss are the only things I have not achieved, so my happiness index stands at a whopping 0.90 out of a maximum of 1.00! As a matter of fact, I do not recall a time when the index has ever fallen below 0.65. So yes, mom, I am definitely persistently happy.

It is interesting that having listed out what matters to me and on which my happiness depends, the daily grind seems irrelevant. I am better able to appreciate life and be super resilient from setbacks.

This exercise puts things in perspective and helps me reconsider what truly matters. Try it out for yourself!